English

Wife to travel to Zhodzina to learn whereabouts of convicted rights defender Byalyatski

Ales Byalyatski’s wife said on February 12 that she did not know whether the convicted human rights defender had been moved to a correctional institution from a jail in Zhodzina, Minsk region.

Natallya Pinchuk plans to travel to Zhodzina on Monday to meet with jail officers in an attempt to establish the husband’s whereabouts, said the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

According to the woman, a jail officer refused to tell her by phone whether or not Mr. Byalyatski had been transferred to a correctional institution.

On November 24, 2011, a judge of the Pershamayski District Court in Minsk sentenced Mr. Byalyatski, the 49-year-old leader of a human rights group called Vyasna (Spring) and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion.

The charge stemmed from information about Mr. Byalyatski's bank accounts abroad, which was provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland. During his trial, Mr. Byalyatski insisted that the money transferred by various foundations to his bank accounts abroad had been intended to finance Vyasna's activities and therefore could not be viewed as his income.

Mr. Byalyatski's appeal was rejected by the Minsk City Court on January 24.

Human rights defenders expected Mr. Byalyatski to be moved to a prison before February 10. //BelaPAN