VILNIUS –
Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byalyatski chose to return to his native Belarus despite warnings he confronted jail there so as to assist civil society by distributing worldwide help donations, a friend of the human rights activist mentioned.
Byalyatski received the prize alongside Russian rights group Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties on Friday in what will likely be seen by many as a condemnation of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.
“He mentioned – I’ve dedicated no crime,” Vytis Jurkonis, head of the Vilnius workplace of Freedom House, a U.S. government-funded human rights advocacy group, informed Reuters within the Lithuanian capital.
Jurkonis, who first met Byalyatski in 2008 and labored in cooperation with him for years, warned him that Lithuanian authorities had unintentionally supplied Belarus together with his banking particulars in Lithuania.
On his return from a go to to Lithuania Byalyatski was sentenced to 4-1/2 years in jail in 2011 for alleged evasion of tax on cash in his Lithuanian financial institution accounts. The cash was supplied by worldwide organizations to fund civil society in Belarus. Byalyatski distributed it there at private threat to himself.
The funds helped lots of of individuals help households after their breadwinners have been arbitrarily jailed in Belarus, in addition to supporting human rights organizations after their workplaces have been raided and gear confiscated, Jurkonis mentioned.
“It’s wired by the worldwide foundations after which you might be cashing it out and bringing it to the these in want, to the weak folks,” Jurkonis mentioned.
BITTERSWEET
“This is one thing which is persecuted by the regime as a result of they need to stress the political prisoners, the households, the colleagues and make it possible for their lives are ruined.”
Byalyatski was freed in 2014 however jailed once more in 2021, as soon as extra for alleged tax evasion. He continued working as a human rights campaigner and took half in mass anti-government protests in Minsk in 2020 which noticed tens of 1000’s folks take to the streets for months to demand Lukashenko resign.
“He was there all through all these years. Not solely in 2020, but in addition in protests which occurred lengthy earlier than, in 2010, in 2006, and earlier,” mentioned Jurkonis.
“He is the face of the human rights defenders group in Belarus. He is an embodiment of what human rights defenders ought to be, typically sacrificing even his personal safety and his private life for the advantage of the others,” mentioned Jurkonis.
Viasna, the group Byalyatski based, has performed a number one position in documenting human rights abuses in Belarus.
Belarus authorities are probably to strive to extract concessions from the worldwide group to launch Byalyatski, as they did many instances earlier than with high-profile prisoners, Jurkonis mentioned.
“Our friendship is bittersweet, as a result of I’ve seen him in jail a couple of instances, I do know his colleagues who’re additionally in jail, I do know his household,” he added.
“If Byalyatski was right here, he would, I’m positive, say that it is an award to the all Belarusian human rights defenders and likewise to these they have been making an attempt to defend.”
“I believe he would say that he ought to be the final to go away jail, ensuring that every one different political prisoners are launched as effectively.”
Editing by William Maclean