MINSK, March 3. /TASS/. The Leninsky District Court in Minsk on Friday found Nobel laureate Ales Bialiatski, who heads the unregistered Vesna Human Rights Center, guilty of the criminal charges lodged against him, sentencing him to 10 years in a maximum security penal colony and fining him about $65,000.
A TASS correspondent reports from the courtroom that Vesna representatives Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich, who were implicated in the case together with Bialiatski, were sentenced to 9 and 7 years, respectively, in a maximum security penal colony. Dmitry Solovyov, who is currently outside of Belarus and whose case was heard separately in absentia, was sentenced to 8 years in prison. All three defendants were fined approximately $40,000 each.
The verdict may be appealed within 10 days.
The Vesna Center representatives were detained in July 2021 and put on trial on January 5, 2023. All pled not guilty.
According to investigators, during the period from April 4, 2016 to July 14, 2021 Bialiatski and the other Vesna members involved in the case cashed out funds received in Lithuania from various organizations and foundations on the bank accounts of a foreign entity under their control. The relevant amounts came to at least €201,000 and $54,000. These funds were gradually moved across the customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union "with the help of other persons" in several undeclared tranches. These actions constitute a crime under Part 4, Article 228 of the Belarusian Criminal Code, which establishes liability for smuggling of contraband by an organized group, carrying a maximum penalty of 12 years of incarceration.
From May 2020 to July 14, 2021, the defendants in the case trained various individuals to take part in actions constituting gross violations of public order, and also financed such events "under the guise of human rights and charitable activities."
In late January 2022, a Gomel court deemed all content produced by the Vesna Center as extremist, based on evidence presented by the Interior Ministry.
In early October 2022, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Ales Bialiatski, the Russian Memorial Center (deemed a foreign agent and shuttered by court order) and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.
Bialiatski, who founded the Vesna Center in 1996, was detained in August 2011 and sentenced in November to 4.5 years in a maximum security penal colony for tax evasion. He did not admit his guilt. In June 2014, he was released before the end of his sentence.