• Ales Bialiatski was detained during antigovernmental demonstrations in 2021.
• He is suspected of smuggling money to finance opposition operations.
• The 60-year-old is one of three recipients of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize.

In Belarus, the trial of human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski has begun. Bialiatski is currently facing charges in Belarus.

The 60-year-old Mr. Bialiatski was detained during antigovernmental demonstrations in 2021, and according to his supporters, authoritarian Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is seeking to silence him.

According to the Viasna (Spring) Human Rights Centre, which Bialiatski created, he is suspected of smuggling money to finance opposition operations.

He might spend up to 12 years behind bars.

Following protracted street demonstrations against hotly contested elections that had retained Mr. Lukashenko in office the year before, he was detained in 2021.

Police brutality against protesters and frequent arrests and imprisonment of Mr. Lukashenko’s detractors marked the protests, which began in 2020.

One of the three recipients of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, Mr. Bialiatski has been detained without being brought to trial.

He is currently in court with fellow activists Vladimir Labkovich and Valentin Stefanovich.

On Thursday, Viasna posted images that seemed to show Mr. Bialiatski in the courtroom.

He and the other accused, according to the organization, could spend seven to twelve years behind bars.

The head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, said when awarding the 2022 prize that “government authorities have repeatedly sought to silence” Mr. Bialiatski.

“Despite tremendous personal hardship, Mr. Bialiatski has not yielded an inch in his fight for human rights and democracy in Belarus,” she added at the time.

Shortly before his arrest in 2021, Mr. Bialiatski wrote on his Facebook page that the Belarusian authorities “are acting as a regime of occupation”.

“Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators across all of Belarus, and hundreds [of them are] detained,” he wrote.

In response to Mr. Lukashenko’s ruthless suppression of street protests that year, Mr. Bialiatski founded Viasna in 1996. Mr. Lukashenko had been Belarus’ president from the position’s establishment in 1994.

The organization helped imprisoned protesters and their families and exposed how political prisoners were tortured by the government.

He was found guilty of tax evasion in 2011 and sentenced to three years in prison.

Belarus is ruled by Mr. Lukashenko, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has previously been referred to in the West as Europe’s last dictator.

As part of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he has permitted Vladimir Putin to conduct missile attacks from Belarus.

Additionally, he permitted Russia to send soldiers to Belarus and was punished for his involvement in the invasion.

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