Belarus court sentences Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison

Minsk (Belarus): A court in Belarus on Friday sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison, Russian state-owned news agency TASS reported. The verdict is likely to be strongly condemned by Western human rights groups. Bialiatski, a pro-democracy activist and founder of the Viasna human rights group which provided legal and financial help to protesters during a 2020 wave of unrest in Belarus, was convicted on charges of financing those protests as well as for evading taxes. In his defence, the pro-democracy activist has said he is being persecuted by the administration for political reasons. Rights groups say there are around 1,500 political prisoners in Belarus, with many of them having been arrested since the suppression of the 2020 protests which erupted after veteran Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko declared he had been re-elected in polls. Several Western nations and the Belarusian opposition said the elections were fraudulent and had been rigged in favour of President Lukashenko. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.