Imprisoned rights defender Bialiatski prohibited from meeting with relatives

The administration of a correctional institution in Babruysk, where Ales Bialiatski is serving his prison sentence, has prohibited the prominent human rights defender from seeing his relatives on August 15.

The administration of a correctional institution in Babruysk, where Ales Bialiatski is serving his prison sentence, has prohibited the prominent human rights defender from seeing his relatives on August 15.

Mr. Bialiatski’s family were to visit him on that day, but the conjugal visit has now been cancelled, activist Valiantsin Stefanovich told BelaPAN.

The cancellation of the short-term visit is punishment for two minor violations committed by Mr. Bialiatski. In violation of prison rules, he set up a curtain to separate his bunk from others’ and tried to take a piece of bread out of the facility’s canteen after dinner, Mr. Stefanovich said.

Mr. Bialiatski has also been prohibited from receiving food from his family because of the violations.

On November 24, 2011, Mr. Bialiatski, leader of a human rights group called Viasna and vice president of the International Federation for Human Rights, 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. Bialiatski insisted that the money transferred by various foundations to his bank accounts abroad had been intended to finance Viasna’s activities and therefore could not be viewed as his income subject to taxation.