On Friday, a Belarusian court convicted Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski, renowned human rights advocate and founder of the Viasna human rights center, of smuggling and financing actions that violated public order. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, three associates - Valiantsin Stefanovich nine years, Uladzimir Labkovicz seven years, and Dzmitry Salauyou eight years in absentia - for the same charges.

The proceedings that began in 2020, the same year President Alexander Lukashenko won a disputed electoral victory, were held behind closed doors. Coupled with a brutal crackdown on the protesters, this sentence emphasizes Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule over the ex-Soviet country since 1994.

In photos released by the state news agency Belta, Bialiatksi, clad in black clothes, could be seen standing in a