UN experts call for release of jailed Belarus Nobel prize winner
UN experts call for release of jailed Belarus Nobel prize winner
By AFP
Nobel Peace Prize winner and leading human rights figure in Belarus Ales Bialiatski is being held arbitrarily and must be released immediately, UN experts said in an opinion published Thursday.
Bialiatski, the founder of Viasna -- the main human rights defence organisation in Belarus -- was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison for "foreign currency trafficking".
The 61-year-old has already been imprisoned twice in the past for alleged tax evasion.
"The deprivation of liberty" of Bialiatski is arbitrary and violates several articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN's Working Group on Arbitrary Detention said in an opinion adopted in March.
The group said that given the circumstances of the case, Bialiatski should be released "immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law."
Although the opinions of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention are not binding, they nevertheless carry considerable moral weight.
Natalia Pinchuk, Bialiatski's wife, welcomed the group's statement and called on the international community to go further to secure his release.
"Ales remains wrongly detained in Belarus, far from family, deprived from medicine he needs, and living day to day in inhumane conditions," Pinchuk said in a press release.
She also called for the release of other political prisoners in Belarus. Jared Genser, Bialiatski's international counsel, said that he "has been an outspoken advocate and fighter for human rights and democracy in Belarus and beyond."
He added that Bialiatski's detention is "unjust, illegal, and cruel."
Viasna, a human rights watchdog in Belarus, is a key source of information about the repression in the country.
Belarus has ruthlessly stamped out dissent under President Alexander Lukashenko, a Kremlin ally, who has ruled the country since 1994.
The brutal repression has also driven hundreds of thousands of Belarusians into exile.
