Washington, DC – The International Republican Institute (IRI) issued the following statement after a Belarusian court sentenced last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, the human rights activist Ales Bialiatski, to 10 years in prison:
“The International Republican Institute strongly condemns the conviction and sentencing of Ales Bialiatski, a Nobel Prize winner and human rights activist in Belarus. The politically motivated charges of financial crimes and unjust prison sentence for Bialiatski are just the latest attempt by Alyaksandr Lukashenka to frighten the opposition and crush all other dissenting voices. This action by the criminal and corrupt regime in Minsk only highlights its own fragility and will fail to dampen the democratic spirit that thrives within the Belarusian people.
“IRI stands with the people of Belarus and supports their desire to live in a free and democratic society.”
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