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Rights defender Byalyatski misses out on Sakharov Prize

 

Imprisoned human rights defender Ales Byalyatski has missed out on the European Parliament`s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2012.

The European Parliament announced on October 26 that the award went to Iranian dissidents Nasrin Sotoudeh and Jafar Panahi. They were chosen by European Parliament President Martin Schulz and political group leaders on Friday morning.

Nominated for the Sakharov Prize by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and 82 other members of the European Parliament, the 50-year-old Byalyatski was shortlisted for the award earlier this month.

Mr. Byalyatski, chairman of a human rights organization called Vyasna and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Minsk on August 4, 2011. On November 24, 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.

Launched in 1988, the Sakharov Prize is awarded annually on or around December 10, the day on which the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists won the prize in 2004 and opposition politician Alyaksandr Milinkevich was awarded the prize in 2006. //BelaPAN