State media denigrate Bialiatski and “Viasna” all over Belarus

The state-owned newspapers “Mahiliouskiya Vedamastsi”, “Prydniaprouskaya Niva”, "Vitebski Rabochy" and "Narodnaye Slova" have published an article "How “human rights defender” "Bialiatski made a nice life for himself”. Most probably, soon this publication will appear in other state-own newspapers.
 
According to independent media, state-owned press outlets were made to publish this article, written by s warned the independent media, regional press was forced to place the material, written by “Dzianis Paliavanau” (we don’t know whether it is a real name), in which the author publicly insults the honor and dignity of the head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”.

The trial of Ales Bialiatski still continues in Minsk. The human rights defender, who is charged with financial violations, insists on his innocence. However, “Dzianis Paliavanau” decided not to wait till the end of the trial, and writes about Bialiatski as a disclosed criminal who “appropriated other people’s money and, correspondingly, deceived western taxpayers, being not the one he claimed to be”.

The author of the defamatory article writes about large sums, transferred through Bialiatski’s account, but doesn’t mention any numbers. However, he calls Bialiatski a "wealthy gentleman", who secretly brought currency in cash together with all staff of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” and handed it out to obscure persons. Thus, “Paliavanau” not only tries to besmear Ales Bialiatski in person, but the whole Human Rights Center “Viasna”. He writes that the main aim of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” was the "personal enrichment" of Bialiatski and his family.

There is no doubt that the article was ordered by the authorities, the more that it was published in several newspapers at once. The independent website charter97.org warned about such a possibility several days ago, referring to anonymous reports of workers of a number of state media.