A court in Belarus has sentenced Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski to 10 years in prison.
He was convicted of smuggling and financing “actions grossly violating public order”, the Viasna human rights group said.
Supporters of Mr Bialiatski, 60, say the authoritarian regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is trying to silence him.
He was arrested in 2021 following massive street protests over widely disputed elections the previous year, and accused of smuggling cash into Belarus to fund opposition activity.
Demonstrators were met with police brutality and Lukashenko critics were regularly arrested and jailed during the demonstrations, which started in 2020.
