The trial of the Nobel Prize winner of Belarus, human rights activist Alesem Byalyatsky is in the rating. He faces 7 to 12 years
In the Leninsky District Court of Minsk on January 5, the International Trial of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, chairman of the human rights center “Viasna” Ales Byalyatsky, his deputy Valentin Stefanovich, coordinator of the campaign “Defenders of Free Elections” Vladimir Labkovich, also Dmitry Solovyov, who left Belarus, is tried in absentia.
Human rights activists are accused of articles on smuggling money and financing group actions that grossly violate public order. They face 7 to 12 years in prison.
Bialiatski, Stefanovich and Labkovich have been in custody since July 14 last year. Representatives of the Belarusian pro-government media came to the courtroom. All those present were recorded in a separate list, transmit Belarusian service of Radio Liberty.
The human rights defenders, sitting in a metal bond, communicate with the judge in Belarusian and express their feelings that the whole process should take place in Belarusian and that they remove the handcuffs, as this humiliates their dignity, writes “Viasna”.
Judge Marina Stocked herself with a rejection of a special first feeling, substantiating her decision by the fact that Belarus has two state languages. At the same time, she allowed all three to continue speaking Belarusian in court. The second initiated case on detention on handbrakes with bringing to criminal responsibility.
Byalyatsky stated another excitement over the exclusion of a Russian-Belarusian interpreter. He said that he did not speak Russian well enough. The judge refused the need to ensure the protection of human rights, explaining that while reading the materials in Russian, he had no problems with understanding.
“Viasna” of raw materials, in total in the case of Byalyatsky, Stefanovich, Labkovich and Solovyov 283 volumes of 300 pages each – this is a record number for the political process. In addition, there were about 100 witnesses in the case, and 120 searches were carried out throughout the country.
According to the prosecution, human rights activists “acting as part of an organized group” cashed out money from April 4, 2016 to July 14, 2021, which came from “various structures and funds” to the bank account of the Viasna human rights center. After that, as confirmed, they “illegally” transported the cashed money to Lithuania through the customs transportation of the Eurasian Economic Union – in total, at least 201 euros and 54 US dollars were taken out in stages “without declaring”.
According to the materials of the cases, “they, in the indicated composition, as well as with other persons, deliberately train citizens to participate in group actions that grossly violate public order, as well as finance and provide material support for such actions under the guise of human rights and charitable activities, including from named after HRC “Viasna”, unregistered fund “BY_HELP”, from May 2020 to July 14, 2021″.
In particular, human rights activists accuse on the following charges:
- payment of fines for infrequent cases, “involved in the basis of court decisions that have entered into legal force in cases of administrative offenses related to violation of public order and the management order established in the country; “;
- the payment of such significant financial compensation for funds that are paid to pay fines;
- compensation instead of some persons who “have committed legal proceedings on administrative offenses, bills for food in places of execution of the penalty in the order of recovery”;
- payment for the work of lawyers, “including for the defense in criminal proceedings of a number of persons found guilty of a criminal offense and subsequently brought in as defendants in criminal cases defended with a gross violation of public order, protesting against the actions of state bodies of the Republic of Belarus.”
On September 25, 2022, the chairman of the human rights center “Viasna” Ales Byalyatsky turned 60 years old. He celebrated his anniversary in the pre-trial detention center – as well as on his 50th birthday, when the human rights activist was serving his sentence in the Bobruisk healer. In 2011, he was sentenced to 4.5 years in a maximum security colony for “tax evasion”.
Ales Byalyatsky was tried more than 20 times: first in the Byelorussian SSR, and also in modern Belarus. He was sent to the Nobel wave of peace five times for the same thing – political defense and human rights. On October 7, 2022, Byalyatsky was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, which was presented to his wife Natalia Pinchuk on Human Rights Day.
Lawyer Valentin Stefanovich is Bialiatsky’s deputy. Attention he headed “Viasna” in 2011, when the head of the human rights center was sentenced to 4.5 years. In 2012, Stefanovich was on the “black lists” of those who were not allowed in for sending. The occurrence of the case became a problem with conscription, despite the fact that the lawyer had already served at that time. On October 14, 2022, Valentin Stefanovich celebrated his 50th birthday in the pre-trial detention center. He has a wife and three children.
Human rights activist Vladimir Labkovich is 44 years old. He has been engaged in social activities since 1996 – he was the founder of the Young Front. In 1998 he joined the work of “Viasna” as a volunteer. After the presidential elections in 2001, she took up human rights activities. Amendment lawyer.
On July 14, 2021, Vladimir was detained along with his wife Nina. They were taken to the pre-trial detention center on Volodarsky Street. At the moment, the spouses have three minor children at home. After 10 days, Labkovich’s wife was released on bail. 14 months after the charges were dropped.
Human rights activist Dmitry Solovyov was detained several times. On February 16, 2021, OMON and GUBAZIK came to his house near Minsk. The security forces tried to search and confiscated the equipment. The human rights activist was detained. A few days later, he was arrested for 12 days because of a concrete bas-relief depicting “The Chase” on the wall of his house. The judge considered it picketing.
On the evening of March 1, 2022, Solovyov was detained again, this time at the Minsk airport, four unidentified people in the form of border guards seized him after passing through customs and border control. After interrogation at the Investigative Committee for Human Rights, he was released on bail. On June 22, 2022, the security forces conducted a second search at Solovyov’s, he himself was not at home at that time. On September 29 last year, the Investigative Committee began “special proceedings” against Solovyov. Now he is outside of Belarus.