Алесь Беляцкий. Фото: instagram.com/nobelpeacecenter
Ales Bialiatski, head of the human rights centre Viasna and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, visited the Nobel Peace Center almost a month after his release.
“What a joy it was today to finally welcome Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski to the Nobel Peace Center. The Belarusian human rights defender spent almost five years behind bars and could not come to Oslo when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2022,” the Nobel Peace Center noted, publishing a photo of the meeting.
“A month ago I was in prison, and now I am here!” Bialiatski said, adding that his release had been a great surprise.
At the Nobel Peace Center, Bialiatski received a box of postcards that museum visitors wrote to him three years ago. The postcards featuring cats and flowers — his favourite motifs — were part of the Nobel Peace Prize exhibition *Nobody Plans to Give Up*. More than 2,000 postcards were sent to Bialiatski in prison, but he did not see any of them.
“This is a form of physical terror, to make prisoners feel that nobody cares about them,” the human rights defender commented.
Ales Bialiatski was detained on 14 July 2021 and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was found guilty of smuggling by an organized group and financing group actions that grossly violated public order. He was released on 13 December together with 122 other political prisoners.