Nobel winner and Belarusian dissident Ales Bialiatski told AFP on Thursday that it was “very important” to keep up pressure on Belarus in order to free political prisoners after his first meeting with the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Bialiatski, 63, was released on December 13, following a deal between Minsk and Washington, that included, among other things, the United States lifting certain economic sanctions on Belarus.
“We very much hope and expect that the process of releasing political prisoners will continue,” Bialiatski told AFP in Oslo after meeting the committee which awarded him the peace prize back in 2022.
“Right now, this is probably the most important problem for us. Human rights defenders, journalists and rights activists are still in jail,” Bialiatski said.
“That’s why it’s very important to keep up the pressure on the Belarusian government, on Lukashenko, so that all political prisoners are freed,” he added.
Bialiatski founded the human rights watchdog Viasna and has spent decades documenting rights abuses in Belarus.
President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, considers him a personal enemy.
He was in custody when he was awarded the Peace Prize in 2022, a few months after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, alongside Russia’s Memorial and Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties.
At the award ceremony in Oslo, he was represented by his wife Natalia Pinchuk.
While visiting Oslo, where his wife now lives, Bialiatski met the five members of the Nobel Committee for the first time and was presented with a Nobel diploma.
“I was very surprised when I learned I had received the prize. I didn’t think it was possible,” he said via an interpreter.
“I knew my name was on the list of nominees, but since there were so many other candidates, such deserving people, I never thought it could happen to me,” he added.
According to Viasna there are currently more than 1,100 political prisoners in Belarus.
