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Byalyatski nominated for Sakharov Prize

Members of the European Parliament have nominated imprisoned Belarusian human rights activist Ales Byalyatski for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought 2012, BelaPAN said.

Other nominees for the European Parliament`s prize are rights activists from Pakistan, Ruanda and Iran, as well as an Iranian film director and the three imprisoned members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot.

Mr. Byalyatski, 49, has been nominated for the award by Jacek Saryusz-Wolski and 82 other members of the European Parliament.

Mr. Byalyatski, leader of a human rights group called Vyasna and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Minsk on August 4, 2011. On November 24, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on a charge of large-scale tax evasion. The charge stemmed from information about his bank accounts abroad, which was thoughtlessly provided by authorities in Lithuania and Poland under interstate legal assistance agreements. During his trial, Mr. Byalyatski insisted that the money transferred by various foundations to his bank accounts abroad had been intended to finance Vyasna`s activities and therefore could not be viewed as his income subject to taxation.

Launched in 1988, the Sakharov Prize is awarded annually on or around December 10, the day on which the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists won the prize in 2004 and opposition politician Alyaksandr Milinkevich was awarded the prize in 2006.