On Friday, the Belarusian human rights advocate, Ales Bialiatski, became the winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. In 2011, Lithuania handed over data on him to the Minsk regime, calling it a “regrettable coordination error”.
In 2011, a scandal broke out in Lithuania when Belarus had arrested an opposition figure Beliatski on the basis of data provided by Vilnius.
The Lithuanian Justice Ministry disclosed to Belarusian officials data on the money of Belarusian human rights defenders deposited in Lithuanian banks.
At that time, then President Dalia Grybauskaitė ordered Justice Minister Remigijus Šimašius, the current mayor of Vilnius, to strictly and immediately assess the actions of his officials in providing data on Belarusian opposition activists.
Then, Aušra Bernotienė, director of the International Law Department of the Justice Ministry, asked to be dismissed. She said that she did not know that she was providing data on a human rights defender and not on a criminal.
For his part, Šimašius said the data on Bialiatski was handed over to the Minsk regime because of a “regrettable coordination error”.
The Justice Ministry said Belarus had applied to Lithuania for legal assistance in relation to Bialiatski in February 2011. In early March, responses were received from the banks and passed on to Belarus. The ministry’s staff sent the information as a matter of routine, without even knowing who Bialiatski was, it said.
“It is regrettable that a mechanism that is meant to be used for cooperation between states to catch criminals is being used by the authorities of a neighbouring country to catch human rights defenders. This is unjustifiable,” Šimašius told reporters at the time.
Lithuania's ambassador then apologised to the opposition leader’s family for the “unpleasant incident” and that Lithuania made every effort to help Bialiatski.
No anger
In 2014, Bialiatski was released from prison. At a press conference in Vilnius, he said that his release was unexpected, but it did not mean that the human rights situation in Belarus had improved.
He also said that he was not angry with the Lithuanian authorities, even though they provided the information that helped to put him behind bars.
“The Lithuanian authorities did not put me in prison. We were closely watched throughout 2010, in the run-up to the presidential elections. The trial against me was designed to intimidate the public,” Bialiatskis said.
In 2021, the opposition activist was arrested again, allegedly for tax evasion, and is now one of the thousands of political prisoners in Belarus. The Nobel Committee on Friday called for the release of Bialiatski.
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