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Supreme Court upholds conviction of rights defender Byalyatski

The Supreme Court of Belarus has rejected an appeal filed by Ales Byalyatski against his prison sentence, activist Valyantsin Stefanovich said with reference to a letter that he received from the human rights defender.

The Supreme Court said that Mr. Byalyatski`s claims that his conviction was illegal and unfounded "have not been confirmed." The court concluded that the rights defender had been given a fair trial and his prison sentence was "just" punishment.

Mr. Byalyatski has now exhausted all domestic legal remedies to have his conviction overturned and may appeal to international bodies, according to Mr. Stefanovich.

The UN Human Rights Committee has already registered Mr. Byalyatski`s complaint about violations of international treaties and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in his case.

Mr. Byalyatski, 49, leader of a human rights group called Vyasna and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Minsk on August 4, 2011. On November 24, 2011, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion. The charge stemmed from information about his bank accounts abroad, which was thoughtlessly provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland under interstate legal assistance agreements. 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 subject to taxation. //BelaPAN