Belarus puts Nobel Peace Prize winner in solitary confinement

Ales Bialiatski, an activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been placed in solitary confinement at his Belarusian prison, his wife announced on Tuesday.

Despite his chronic illnesses, 61-year-old Bialiatski is serving a 10-year sentence, and prison officials have tightened conditions for him, according to Natalia Pinchuk, who spoke with The Associated Press.

“Effectively, it’s a prison inside prison,” she stated.

After being transferred due to suspected disciplinary infractions, Bialiatski’s lawyer was not permitted to meet with prison officials, she claimed.

Leading proponent of human rights in Belarus and a 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bialiatski was found guilty in March along with three other colleagues of funding acts that violated public order and smuggling, allegations he refuted.

He has been serving his time at the Gorki prison colony for repeat offenders. The facility has a reputation for abusing its inmates and making them work long hours.

Massive protests against a 2020 election that the opposition and many in the West perceived as a sham that extended authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko’s rule prompted the arrests of Bialiatski and his colleagues.

In Belarus, these were the biggest protests ever. Thousands of people were beaten by police, and over 35,000 people were arrested.

Since 1994, Lukashenko, a steadfast supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been in charge of Belarus.

Along with Memorial, a well-known human rights organisation in Russia, and the Ukrainian Centre for Civil Liberties, Bialiatski shared the 2022 Nobel Prize. He established Belarus’ most well-known human rights organisation, the Human Rights Centre Viasna. The authorities in Belarus have labelled it as a “extremist organisation.”

Pavel Sapelka, a Viasna representative, informed the AP that Bialiatski’s transfer to solitary confinement might entail limitations on prison meals, walks, and food deliveries.

(With agency inputs)