Ales Byalyatski in 2018
More than 100 Nobel Prize laureates have signed a letter calling for the release of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Belarusian activist Ales Byalyatski. The veteran activist was sentenced to 10 years in prison in March on smuggling and tax-evasion charges that rights defenders and Western governments have called politically motivated retribution by longtime authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The letter was signed by 103 former laureates, including independent Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021, and published on the webpage of PEN International, a worldwide association of writers. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Russian service, click here .
