Imprisoned Belarusian Nobel laureate should have been freed in prisoner swap, supporters say
VILNIUS: Supporters of jailed Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski say the human rights activist should have been included in the largest East-West prisoner exchange since the Cold War on Thursday.
Bialiatski's associates and other imprisoned Belarusians are disappointed that they were not included in the exchange, in which eight Russians, including those convicted of murder, were exchanged for 16 prisoners in Russian and Belarusian prisons, many of whom were dissidents.
Some of the Russian dissidents freed in the swap, including opposition activist Ilya Yashin, expressed anger or reservations on Friday about being deported from the country against their will.
Bialiatski, 61, who is serving a 10-year sentence for funding anti-government protests after a 2023 trial condemned by the US and the European Union as a “sham”, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 – a year after his arrest.
“When we heard that the deal was imminent, we hoped that one of the Belarusian political prisoners would definitely be a part of it. First of all, of course, the imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate,” said Alena Maslyukova, a member of the Viasna human rights organization founded by Bialiatsky.
“It was a complete disappointment and we still haven't gotten over it,” said Masliukova, who now lives in exile in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
Among those freed in this week's swap was German national Riko Krieger, who was sentenced to death on terrorism charges in Belarus, a close ally of Russia, where Viasna said 1,390 people are in prison for political reasons, many of them linked to mass protests four years ago.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, faced mass protests after the disputed 2020 presidential election, the biggest challenge to his rule.
He has long denied accusations of human rights violations.
“Viasna” says that activists are still being brought to court for participating in protests, and Maslyukova says that political prisoners faced harsh prison conditions.
“They are kept in cold cells, without contact with their relatives. They come out of prison with compromised health,” she said.
Bialiatski voluntarily returned from exile to Belarus in 2021 despite knowing he faced arrest, which supporters say means he may not want to leave the country again, a process that the law requires to ask for pardon from the prisoner.
“I know his character and I am sure that he will never ask for pardon from Lukashenka,” said a long-time friend of Syarhei Sys. “I don't know what will happen in five years… It all depends on his health.”
