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Lithuanian parliament may award its Freedom Prize to Ales Byalyatski

The Seimas, Lithuania's unicameral parliament, may award its Freedom Prize to imprisoned Belarusian human rights defender Ales Byalyatski, reported news website delfi.lt.

The candidacy of the 51-year-old Byalyatski has been proposed to the Freedom Prize Commission by the Civil Defense Assistance Fund and the Belarusian Culture Society in Lithuania, the report said.

"The fearless and consistent stance of Ales Byalyatski on the protection of human rights has repeatedly been honored by the world with various awards," the organizations were quoted as saying.

Instituted in September 2011, the Freedom Prize is intended to celebrate achievements of persons and organizations and their contribution to the protection of human rights, promotion of democracy and international cooperation in their struggle for self-determination and sovereignty of Central and Eastern European nations. The first Freedom Prize was awarded to Russian fighter for freedom and democracy Sergei Kovalyov. Antanas Terleckas, the founder and leader of the Lithuanian Freedom League, was awarded the 2012 Freedom Prize.

The prize carries with it a €5,000 check.

Earlier this year, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly awarded its Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize to Mr. Byalyatski. Last year, he was granted the US Department of State's Human Rights Defenders Award, the Lech Walesa Award, and the Petra Kelly Prize of the Heinrich Boell Foundation.

Ales Byalyatski, chairman of a human rights organization called Vyasna (Spring) who is vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, was arrested in Minsk on August 4, 2011.

On November 24, 2011, 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. //BelaPAN