KYIV (Reuters) – Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski called for “national reconciliation” between the Belarus authorities and opposition on Monday, in his final statement at a trial he said was politically motivated.
Byalyatski, 60, faces up to 12 years in jail at the trial in Minsk in which he and three others face charges of financing protests and smuggling money into Belarus. All deny the charges.
A rights and pro-democracy activist, Byalyatski was among hundreds arrested during a crackdown on anti-government protests after long-time leader Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
“We need to start a broad public dialogue aimed at national reconciliation,” Byalyatski told the court in a statement published online by the Viasna human rights organisation he co-founded in 1996. “Enough. We need to stop this civil war.”
He urged the authorities to declare an amnesty for political prisoners and stop the repression of dissidents.
Byalyatski was already in jail and awaiting trial long before he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last October, along with Russian human rights organisation Memorial and Ukrainian human rights organisation Center for Civil Liberties.
At a trial that began in January, the prosecutor last week sought the maximum jail sentence of 12 years for Byalyatski and prison terms of 11, 10 and nine years respectively for his co-defendants, one of whom is abroad and being tried in absentia.
“The criminal case against us, the human rights activists of Viasna, is politically motivated,” Byalyatski said. “The general situation in the country, riddled with repression and a total violation of human rights, testifies to the political background of this case.”
Lukashenko has denied the 2020 election was rigged and accused the West of funding protesters. He has brushed off accusations of human rights abuses.
Human rights activists say there are at least 1,500 political prisoners in prison in Belarus and that at least 50,000 people have been detained for participating in protests or criticising the authorities since 2020.
“The course towards confrontation, when one part (of society) … crushes and strangles the other, is dangerous and unpromising,” Byalyatski said.
(Writing by Kyiv newsroom, Editing by Timothy Heritage and David Gregorio)
