MINSK, Belarus (AP) — A court in Belarus on Thursday sentenced a prominent opposition activist to four and a half years in prison for tax evasion following a trial that some observers described as politically motivated.
Ales Belyatsky is the head of Vesna, a group providing legal and financial assistance to hundreds of opposition activists arrested for protesting the results of last year’s presidential election in this former Soviet nation in December. Some 700 people, including two presidential candidates, were detained at the rally. Some of them are still in prison.
President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been in office since 1994, was declared the winner of the vote, tightening his grip on power.
Belyatsky, 49, was charged with tax evasion after Polish and Lithuanian authorities provided data about Vesna’s account in those countries. Governments in both countries later apologized.
In a packed courtroom in the capital of Minsk, Belyatsky, who has been in jail since August, looked tired but composed while listening to the judge reading out the verdict. Some in the audience shouted "Shame."
"My case is politically motivated," Belyatsky said in his final statement. "I’m fighting for human rights but now I feel like a voice crying in the desert."
The U.S. embassy in Minsk condemned the verdict and called on Belarusian authorities "to release Belyatsky and all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally, remove any barriers to their future participation in public life, and cease its campaign against critics of the government."
European Union spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said the verdict illustrates "the ever-intensifying crackdown on civil society in Belarus."
Poland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said that Thursday’s verdict "confirms that the current regime does not observe the basic UN standards on civic rights and freedoms."
Warsaw called on the authorities in Belarus to immediately release Belyatsky and "other political prisoners." Without that, the Polish foreign ministry warned, "the European Union’s dialogue with Belarus will not be possible."
Belyatsky’s lawyer, Dmitry Loevsky, said the defense team would appeal the verdict.
United Nations experts on Thursday warned that a law passed in Belarus last month "unduly restricts fundamental rights."
Legislators in Belarus passed a law in October, banning political and civil society groups from receiving foreign assistance and from holding money in foreign banks. The new measures also gave police the authority to break into residences and offices without a warrant.
UN experts voiced fears that the amendments could be linked to various court cases against Belarusian opposition activists including Belyatsky.
"When defenders are allowed to associate but cannot effectively seek, receive or utilize funding resources, the right to freedom of association becomes void," Margaret Sekaggya, UN expert of the situation of human rights defenders, said in a statement.
