Belarusian Rights Defender Released from Prison
Miklós Haraszti, CMCS Fellow and United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, welcomed the release of human rights defender Ales Bialteski. Bialetski is the founder of Viasna, an NGO that provided legal assistance to arrested and imprisoned journalists and activists in Belarus. He has received several human rights awards and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. Bialteski was given a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for tax evasion in November 2011 that was based on trumped-up charges relating to the activities of the NGO he founded.
Miklós Haraszti noted that lately the Belarusian Government accepted some recommendations from the UN to improve the human rights situation in the country but also reminded that many other journalists, activists, and government critics remain imprisoned and called for the immediate release and full rehabilitation of all political prisoners in Belarus.