Ales Byalyatski awarded with Havel prize
The contest committee of the Václav Havel human rights prize decided this in Strasbourg today. The prize fund is EUR 60 thousand.
Ales Byalyatski was among the three nominees along with the civil organizations of Georgia and China. The sum of the prize is EUR 60 thousand.
The short-list of nominees for the Sakharov prize will be announced today. The full list also contains Belarusian political prisoners Ales Byalyatski, Mikalaj Statkevich and Edward Lobau.
Human rights defender Ales Byalyatski was convicted to 4,5 years of imprisonment in November 2011 for tax evasion. Byalyatski did not admit guilt and said that all the money transferred to his bank accounts went for the human rights activity. The EU, the United States and the international human rights organizations consider Ales Byalyatski a political prisoner and demand his immediate release.
