Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights campaigner Ales Bialiatski, released from a Belarusian prison on Saturday, has described being held in “appalling conditions” and blindfolded during his transfer from Belarus.
“I was kept in appalling conditions, like all my fellow prisoners who have now been released and are travelling here. More than 100 people have been freed and are coming via various other routes. A small group arrived through the Medininkai checkpoint… But despite this, I was brought here blindfolded. I crossed the whole of Belarus,” Bialiatski told reporters outside the US Embassy in Vilnius.
“From the Russian border to the colony, across the entire country from east to west, I travelled blindfolded. And here, of course, I am still recovering, as it was a huge emotional shock. During that time, I was only able to speak with my wife,” he added.
Bialiatski said he had been held in a penal colony in Gorki, in the Mogilev region near the Russian border. He expressed relief at being free and described his health as “more or less normal.”
Convicted in 2021 for smuggling and financing activities deemed to violate public order, Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. He had been sentenced to ten years in prison and learned of his release early on Saturday morning.
“At four o’clock this morning, the officer on duty in our unit woke me. When I came out, he told me to quickly gather my belongings. I immediately understood that the release process had begun,” he said.
Asked about the US lifting sanctions on Belarusian potash exports in exchange for the release of political prisoners, Bialiatski said he was unaware of any details.
This was not his first imprisonment. In November 2011, he was sentenced to four and a half years for tax evasion, after the Belarusian rights group Viasna, which he heads, used bank accounts in Poland and Lithuania to collect funds for political prisoners – a practice criminalised under Belarusian law.
Following his arrest, Belarusian authorities said they had acted on information provided by Lithuania, which sparked criticism. Lithuanian officials later apologised to Bialiatski and his family, while insisting they had no knowledge that the data had been requested, describing Belarus’s actions as a provocation.
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