Facts: Vyasna
Vjasna (Belarusian for spring) is an organization that works for civil and human rights. It was founded in 1996, in the context of pro-democracy demonstrations that took place when Aleksandr Lukashenko extended his presidential powers via a contested referendum.
Vjasna’s founder and chairman Ales Byaljatski was sentenced in 2011 to four and a half years in prison for alleged tax crimes. The sentence was condemned internationally as political and Byalyatski was released after three years. He subsequently received a number of international human rights awards and recognitions. He has previously been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times.
The organization is headquartered in Minsk and has several regional offices in Belarus. It has international collaborations with 14 organizations, some of which are Swedish: Civil Rights Defenders (formerly the Swedish Helsinki Committee), Swedish Peace and Amnesty’s Swedish branch.
There has also been silence from him for a month.
Natalja Pintjuk says that Byalyatski, who is serving a ten-year prison sentence, has been moved to a prison for repeat offenders in the city of Horki, where prisoners are mistreated and subjected to hard labor.
— The authorities create unbearable conditions for Ales and keep him in strict information isolation. Not a single letter has come from him for a month, nor does he receive my letters.
It was in March that the 60-year-old and three of his colleagues were convicted of participating in the mass protests that shook Belarus this year. They were convicted of smuggling as well as of financing organized “crimes against public order”.
Byalyatski founded Vyasna, which records the Belarusian regime’s abuses and imprisonments of dissidents. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last fall.
Now Pintjuk is worried about his health.
— In the last few letters, I see how his writing has changed and I see how the situation is getting worse for him, both in terms of his health and his vision, and I’m very, very worried, she says.