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Rights defender Byalyatski set to resume his work

Human rights defender Ales Byalyatski announced on Monday that he would resume his work following his early release from prison on June 21.

Speaking to reporters in Minsk, the 51-year-old chairman of the Vyasna Human Rights Center and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights said that he had no plans to emigrate from Belarus.

"I'm not going to move anywhere. I find life comfortable here as there are kindred spirits around me," he said.

One may move abroad to receive education but should return to Belarus afterward, said the activist.

Mr. Byalyatski said that he had no regrets about the 1,050 days that he spent behind bars. "It's normal to be in prison for the sake of an independent and democratic Belarus," he noted.

The rights defender urged the Belarusian authorities to release seven more activists who are widely regarded as political prisoners. "Belarus deserves to be a country without political prisoners," he said.

Mr. Byalyatski 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.

While meeting with Belarusian media leaders on January 21, Alyaksandr Lukashenka said that Mr. Byalyatski might be amnestied if all the money he owed had really been paid.

When asked by BelaPAN Director General Ales Lipay why Mr. Byalyatski, whose debt had been paid off with donations a long time before, could not been freed, Mr. Lukashenka said that he was unaware of that and tasked Alyaksandr Radzkow, first deputy head of the Presidential Administration, with finding out whether or not that was true.

“This is a serious argument. This is not about politics and the position of Byalyatski himself. I swear I did not and do not know him,” Mr. Lukashenka said, adding that paying taxes “is a sacred thing.”

Mr. Byalyatski served his prison sentence in a correctional institution in Babruysk, Mahilyow region.