Ales Bialiatski is released (updated)
The political prisoner has phoned his wife Natallya Pinchuk. He has been released and is heading for Minsk from Babruisk by train, Radio Liberty repor
Euroradio has found out that Bialiatski will arrive at the station Instytut Kultury at 3.15 p.m. by a Zhlobin-Minsk train. Relatives and colleagues will be waiting for him there.
Head of the unregistered human rights centre Viasna and vice President of the International Human Rights Federation Ales Bialiatski has been involved in civil and political activities since the middle of the 1980s.
Václav Havel awarded the prize Homo Homini to Ales Bialiatski for his human rights activities in March 2006. Bialiatski was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize back then.
Ales Bialiatski was accused of tax evasion (major tax evasion, article 243, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus) on August 4, 2011. According to the article, the human rights defender could be imprisoned for up to 7 years and his property could be confiscated.
Bialiatski was imprisoned for 4.5 years for ‘major tax evasion’ on October 24, 2011.
He was also nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2012 and 2013. Bialiatski has been an honorary citizen of Genoa (Liguria, Italy) and of Paris since 2012.
