Saturday 21 June 2014, summer came with another news for Natallia Pinchuk, the wife of Ales Bialiatski: “I was on my way to the countryside, but did not reach it. Ales called me. As far as I understood, he was going to Minsk by train. He said he would be in Minsk around 15:00. I turned around and rushed back to Minsk.”

Alex Bialiatski & Natalya Pinchuk on 21 June 2014 at railway terminal in Minsk (Belarus). (Associated Press)

In prison since 2011 following a trial unanimously condemned by the international community, Ales Bialiatski has for many years fought in Belarus to assist victims of political repression and to spread information worldwide on human rights violations in the country. He is Chairman of the Human Rights Centre Viasna, which he set up in 1996, and – since 2007 – Vice-President of the International Federation on Human Rights.

Belarus criminises human rights defenders by banning their NGOs, banning rights do assemble, and taking any necessary step to limit the freedom of expression and media freedoms.

When Ales Bialiatski was awarded with the Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize in September 2013, Maria Dahle, HRHF’s Executive Director, expressed how deserved the prize was for Ales Bialiatski’s “courageous and longstanding human rights work.” She at the time added: “It is so well deserved. Let us hope it will have a catalyst effect on his early release from prison – as well as the other political prisoners in Belarus. We miss Ales so very much and want him back now. Belarus needs him, and the international human rights community needs him – Ales is a role-model and a mentor to us all.”

Ales Bialiatski has not requested any pardon and has not signed any document in that direction. His release is the consequence of an amnesty, which entered into force on 21 June 2014, and he was informed about his release only on the morning of the same day. The early release of Ales Bialiatski does however not mean that the Belarusian government recognised that his detention was unjustified and due to laws punishing those who defend human rights and those who express critics towards the government.

Now that Ales Bialiatski is back in Minsk, this does not improve the human rights situation in Belarus. It underlines indeed that the country is run by a system allowing one person to decide when who should be in prison and when who should be released, whether the voice is too critical and too disturbing. And other political prisoners remain in prison, which should all be released and fully rehabilitated.

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The Head of the Human Rights Centre “Viasna”, which was closed down by the authorities, was detained on 4 August, 2011 and was sentenced to 4.5 years of imprisonment in November 2011. He was convicted of tax evasion. Human rights defender pleaded not guilty and said that all money received on his account, were used for the human rights activities. The grounds for Bialiatski’s prosecution was the information on bank accounts, which Lithuania and Poland passed the official Minsk.

The Human Rights House Network (HRHN) repeatedely called for the immediate and unconditionnal release of Ales Bialiatski. To us, his arrest was arbitrary from the first day on, 4 August 2011: