An imprisoned Nobel laureate underscores human rights abuses in Belarus

The yellow name tag that Ales Bialiatski wears on his prison garb sets him apart from other inmates in Penal Colony No. 9 in eastern Belarus.

It marks Bialiatski as a political prisoner to be singled out for harsh treatment. Because he's been labelled an "extremist" by authorities, he's routinely denied medications, food parcels from home and contact with relatives, and is subjected to forced labour and stints in punishment cells, according to former inmates.

Authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko often claimed in his three decades in power that Belarus has no political prisoners, but activists say it currently holds about 1,300 of them.

Many endure harsh conditions like Bialiatski, 62, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 for his human rights activism and is believed to be in worsening health.

Belarus will hold a presidential election on January 26 with no real opposition candidates. That all but assures a seventh term for Lukashenko, who was dubbed "Europe's last dictator" early in his tenure.

The vote is shining a spotlight anew on Belarus' human rights record after balloting in 2020 that was denounced at home and abroad as fraudulent. It triggered mass anti-government protests that led to a harsh crackdown on dissent and thousands of arrests.

'A catastrophe in the centre of Europe'

"Bialatski's fate underscores the catastrophe in the centre of Europe that Lukashenko's regime has plunged Belarus into," opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who ran in the 2020 election but was forced into exile, said.

Her husband, activist Siarhei Tsikhanouski, also is imprisoned and hasn't been heard from for nearly 700 days.

"If the authorities are openly abusing a Nobel laureate and demonstratively turning his life into hell, it is not difficult to imagine the torment that thousands of other Belarusian political prisoners are experiencing," Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press.

In recent months, Lukashenko has pardoned some political opponents, but critics say it's a revolving door, with his government simultaneously arresting others in a continuing crackdown.

Nearly 65,000 people have been arrested since 2020, and many of them alleged they were beaten or tortured in custody, which the government denied. Activists say at least seven have died behind bars.

Bialiatski was arrested in 2021 amid raids by the country's KGB. In March 2023, he was convicted on charges of smuggling and financing actions that "grossly violated public order", and sentenced to 10 years. Authorities labelled him as especially dangerous because of alleged "extremist" tendencies.

Fears for Nobel winner's health

He was transferred to the harsh Penal Colony No. 9 in 2023, and Bialiatski's wife, Natalia Pinchuk, hasn't heard from him since last August, she told AP in a December interview.

A food parcel she had sent to him was returned to her in November -- an ominous sign of his bleak conditions.

She gets only crumbs of information from other inmates: His health has deteriorated from months in solitary confinement, his chronic conditions are flaring up, and he needs "special medical care", she said.

"His most recent letter is written in large script, which points to problems with his eyesight. I also know that he has lost a lot of weight and needs medication," Pinchuk said.

Many in Belarus and the West link Bialiatski's harsh treatment to his activities with his human rights group, Viasna. During the post-election protests, Viasna helped thousands of people targeted by law enforcement and documented its widespread violations.

The government responded by shutting down Viasna's offices and arresting six prominent members.

Four of them -- Valiantsin Stefanovic, Uladzimir Labkovich, Marfa Rabkova, and Andrei Chapiuk -- are serving sentences ranging from five years and nine months to nearly 15 years.

"When the repressions worsened and it became very dangerous, I asked Ales to consider leaving Belarus," his wife said.

"But by that time, Viasna rights defenders had already been arrested, and he said he cannot leave them behind."

While in detention, Bialiatski was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with two other human rights groups -- Russia's Memorial and Ukraine's Center for Civil Liberties.

It was seen as the Nobel committee's rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But conditions only got worse for Bialiatski. Penal Colony No. 9, near the eastern city of Horki, is where repeat offenders are sent, former inmates say, and it is known for beatings, food deprivation and forced labour.

'Hungry prisoners are easier to manage'

Ruslan Akostka, released from the penal colony in July, told AP that inmates were ordered not to speak to Bialiatski, or else they'd end up in an isolation cell.

He recalled seeing a gaunt Bialiatski spending hours assembling wooden pallets and army ammunition boxes in what he described as "slave labour".

"For lunch -- a few spoonfuls of potato. Bialiatski is very thin, and like everyone, he constantly walks around hungry. It all looks like a concentration camp. After all, hungry prisoners are easier to manage," Akostka said.

Leanid Sudalenka, a Viasna activist who fled Belarus in 2024 after serving three years in a different colony, described No. 9 as the place where authorities seek to "break" political prisoners.

"Bialiatski may simply not survive until his release," he said.

The Nobel laureate will be 70 when his sentence ends.

"Authorities are creating conditions for political prisoners that are akin to torture," Sudalenka said, adding that he has seen inmates "lose first their sight, then their teeth, then collapse" from exhaustion and mistreatment.

Bialiatski has faced arrest over 20 times since becoming involved in the pro-independence movement in the 1980s while Belarus was still part of the Soviet Union.

He founded Viasna in 1996, and it has become the country's most prominent rights organisation, winning international acclaim.

He spent three years in jail on what he called a politically motivated tax evasion conviction in 2011. Released in 2014 following Western pressure, he returned to his activism.

Bialiatski was behind bars for the Nobel ceremony in Oslo, but Pinchuk spoke in his place, describing Belarus as a country where "the cold wind from the East collided with the warm (of) the European renaissance".