STORY: The Belarusian Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Byaljazki has been sentenced to ten years in prison. A court in the capital Minsk on Friday found the 60-year-old human rights activist and three co-defendants guilty of financing protests against the government of autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko and smuggling money. This was reported by the state news agency Belta. The convict denies the allegations. Human rights organizations speak of a politically motivated process. A spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said: “We are very concerned about the trial of these Belarusian human rights defenders. We are very concerned about the lack of a fair trial and access to an independent judiciary in Belarus As far as I know, at the end of 2022 there were at least 1,446 people, including 10 children, in detention or facing criminal prosecution.” Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock condemned the process. “The charges and the trial were a farce,” she said on Twitter. Opposition leader Svetlana Tichanovskaya, who lives in exile, called the verdict “appalling”. The convict is one of the most prominent government critics among the hundreds arrested during the violent crackdown on mass anti-government protests. The unrest broke out after the re-election of long-time head of state Lukashenko in the summer of 2020. He is accused of voter fraud. He is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The human rights organization Vyazna has taken a leading role in providing legal and financial support to the detainees. Byalyatski received the Nobel Peace Prize last October for his work for human rights and democracy – together with the Russian human rights group Memorial and the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties.