January 8, Pozirk. Aleś Bialacki, Belarus’ 2022 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has visited the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo to pick up his Nobel certificate, DW reported citing AFP.
“The Nobel Peace Prize protected me. It protected me against other prisoners, but also against the prison guards and the prison leaders. . . The prize gave me a form of respect,” he said.
When he was awarded the prize in 2022, he was still in prison— Bialacki was one of 123 prisoners exchanged by Alaksandar Łukašenka for US sanctions relief on Belarusian potash fertilizers on December 13. He was forced to leave the country and taken to Lithuania.
He was arrested along with his associates in July 2021 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges of smuggling cash and financing mass disorder—charges widely believed to be politically motivated.
He was also imprisoned from 2011 to 2014.
