(CNN) Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Beliatski was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a high-security penal colony by a court in Minsk on Friday, Russia’s state news agency TASS reports. According to TASS, he was found guilty of smuggling.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya slammed the conviction of Bialiatski and other activists in the same trial as “appalling”.
“We must do everything we can to fight and liberate this shameful injustice,” she wrote on Twitter.
Germany called the 10-year prison sentence an attack by Minsk on civil society. On Twitter, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock described the indictment and trial of Bialiatski and co-defendants Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich as a “farce”. dignity and freedom of the people of Belarus.”
“The Minsk regime is targeting civil society with violence and imprisonment,” Baerbock said, adding, “This is as much a daily disgrace as Lukashenko’s support for Putin’s war (in Ukraine).”
Baerbock called on Belarus to end political persecution and called for the release of all more than 1,400 political prisoners.
Bialiatski, a pro-democracy activist, has documented human rights abuses in Belarus since the 1980s. He founded the Viasna, or Spring, organization in 1996 after a referendum that consolidated the authoritarian power of President and close Russian ally, President Alexander Lukashenko.
The activist was arrested in 2020 amid widespread protests against Lukashenko’s regime.
Bialiatski won the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with human rights groups from Russia and Ukraine.
The new laureates were honored for “their outstanding work in documenting war crimes, human rights violations and abuse of power” in their respective countries. “You have been promoting the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens for many years,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said at the time.
Belarusian opposition politician Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya congratulated Bialiatski. “The award is an important recognition for all Belarusians fighting for freedom and democracy,” she wrote in a tweet three years ago. “All political prisoners must be released immediately.”