English

Thousands express solidarity with Byalyatski

 

More than 100,000 people have joined a global campaign of solidarity with imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski, according to Amnesty International.

Mr. Byalyatski was among 12 individuals who received letters of solidarity from across the world as part of Amnesty International’s “Write for Rights” letter writing marathon in December 2012.

The campaign asked people to send solidarity letters to relatives of victims of human rights abuses and urge governments to take action.

In Japan and South Korea, people made thousands of lanterns featuring images of the individuals, including Mr. Byalyatski. Schoolchildren in Togo wrote a letter to the Belarusian activist, while activists in Paraguay organized a bicycle race, and collected signatures for a petition demanding Mr. Byalyatski’s release as they went.

Thousands of events were held in support of Mr. Byalyatski in Poland. Petitions demanding freedom for the activist were signed in many European countries.

During the letter writing marathon, Mr. Byalyatski received up to 500 solidarity letters a day from individuals from across the world, according to Amnesty International.

“These people do not just support me personally, but are expressing their protest against the systematic violations of human rights. It is a clear and simple message to all Belarusians,” the activist was quoted as saying.

Ales Byalyatski, who is the head 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