Viasna leaders plead not guilty

January 5, BPN. The Viansa Human Rights Center reports that its leaders have pleaded not guilty.

Their case file comprises 283 volumes 300 pages each, spring96.org reported. Viasna’s head Aleś Bialacki said he had read only 70 volumes.

The trial opened on January 5 at the Leninski District Court in Minsk.

Authorities accuse the Nobel Peace Prize winner Bialacki of smuggling cash across the border and financing protests. His associates Valancin Stefanovič and Uładzimir Łabkovič are tried as part of the same case, while Źmicier Sałaŭjoŭ, who has fled the country, is tried in absentia.

Judge Maryna Zapaśnik has rejected the defendants’ request to hold the proceedings in the Belarusian language.

She has also rejected a motion for her recusal and left the defendants with the handcuffs on.

Bialacki, Stefanovič and Łabkovič were arrested in July 2021 on tax evasion charges, which were dropped in September 2022, only to be followed by accusations of smuggling.

Last October, Bialacki won the Nobel Peace Prize together with human rights organizations Memorial, Russia, and Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine.