Foreign diplomats send New Year congratulations to Ales Bialiatski

The imprisoned head of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” received congratulations on Christmas from the heads of the embassies of the EU member states and the USA. Ales Bialiatski mentioned that in a letter to his colleagues on 7 January.

The joint congratulation to the Belarusian prisoner of conscience was sent from the ambassadors of the European Union member states. Apart from that the embassy of Czech Republic sent a message from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Kohout. The human rights activist also received a Christmas card from the chargé d'affaires ad interim of the USA in Belarus Ithon Goldrich.

Ales Bialiatski is serving the prison term in the penal colony No. 2 in Babruisk. On 24 November 2011 court found him guilty of concealment of profits on an especially large scale and sentenced him to 4.5 years in high security penal colony and property confiscation. The reason for the criminal persecution of Ales Bialiatski was that he had bank accounts in Lithuania and Poland. The court did not take into account that the means on these accounts was used solely for human rights activities.