VILNIUS: Supporters of jailed Belarusian Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski say the human rights activist should have been included in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War on Thursday.
Allies of Bialiatski and other jailed Belarusians are disappointed they were not included in the swap, which saw eight Russians, including a convicted murderer, exchanged for 16 prisoners in Russian and Belarusian jails, many of them dissidents.
Some of the Russian dissidents freed in the swap, including Ilya Yashin, an opposition activist, expressed anger or reservations on Friday at having been deported from their country against their will.
Bialiatski, 61, who is serving a 10-year sentence for financing anti-government protests after a trial in 2023 condemned by the US and the European Union as a “sham,” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 — a year after his arrest.
“When we heard that the deal is imminent, we hoped that someone from Belarus political prisoners will surely be a part of it. First of all, of course, the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner,” said Alena Masliukova, a member of Viasna — the human rights organization founded by Bialiatski.
“This was a total disappointment, and we still haven’t overcome it,” said Masliukova, who now lives in exile in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
Among those released in this week’s swap was German citizen Rico Krieger who had been sentenced to death on terrorism charges in Belarus, a close ally of Russia where — according to Viasna — 1,390 people are in jail for political reasons — many linked to mass protests four years ago.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, faced large protests after a disputed 2020 presidential election — the biggest challenge to his rule.
He has long dismissed accusations of human rights abuse.
Viasna says activists are still dragged before courts for their role in the protests, and Masliukova said political prisoners faced harsh conditions in jail.
“They are kept in cold cells, without contact with relatives. They leave jail with damaged health,” she said.
Bialiatski returned voluntarily from exile to Belarus in 2021 despite knowing he likely faced arrest, which supporters said meant he might not be willing to leave the country again, a process which legally requires the prisoner to ask for a pardon.
“I know his character and I am sure there is no way he would ask for pardon from Lukashenko,” said Siarhei Sys, a long-time friend. “I don’t know what happens in five years ... It all depends on the state of his health.”
Jailed Belarus Nobel winner should have been freed in prisoner swap, say supporters
https://arab.news/2ppgx
Jailed Belarus Nobel winner should have been freed in prisoner swap, say supporters
- Allies of Bialiatski and other jailed Belarusians are disappointed they were not included in the swap
- Alena Masliukova, a member of Viasna — the human rights organization founded by Bialiatski, said: “This was a total disappointment, and we still haven’t overcome it“
US judge rejects Trump administration’s halt of wind energy permits
- 17 Democratic-led states challenged the suspension
- Offshore wind group supports ruling for economic and energy priorities
BOSTON: A federal judge on Monday struck down an order by US President Donald Trump’s administration to halt all federal approvals for new wind energy projects, saying that agencies’ efforts to implement his directive were unlawful and arbitrary.
Agencies including the US Departments of the Interior and Commerce and the Environmental Protection Agency have been implementing a directive to halt all new approvals needed for both onshore and offshore wind projects pending a review of leasing and permitting practices.
Siding with a group of 17 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia, US District Judge Patti Saris in Boston said those agencies had failed to provide reasoned explanations for the actions they took to carry out the directive Trump issued on his first day back in office on January 20.
They could not lawfully under the Administrative Procedure Act indefinitely decline to review applications for permits, added Saris, who was appointed by Democratic President Bill Clinton.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat whose state led the legal challenge, called the ruling “a big victory in our fight to keep tackling the climate crisis” in a social media post.
White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement that Trump through his order had “unleashed America’s energy dominance to protect our economic and national security.”
Trump has sought to boost government support for fossil fuels and maximize output in the United States, the world’s top oil and gas producer, after campaigning for the presidency on the refrain of “drill, baby, drill.”
The states, led by New York, sued in May, after the Interior Department ordered Norway’s Equinor to halt construction on its Empire Wind offshore wind project off the coast of New York.
While the administration allowed work on Empire Wind to resume, the states say the broader pause on permitting and leasing continues to have harmful economic effects.
The states said the agencies implementing Trump’s order never said why they were abruptly changing longstanding policy supporting wind energy development.
Saris agreed, saying the policy “constitutes a change of course from decades of agencies issuing (or denying) permits related to wind energy projects.”
The defendants “candidly concede that the sole factor they considered in deciding to stop issuing permits was the President’s direction to do so,” Saris wrote.
An offshore wind energy trade group welcomed the ruling.
“Overturning the unlawful blanket halt to offshore wind permitting activities is needed to achieve our nation’s energy and economic priorities of bringing more power online quickly, improving grid reliability, and driving billions of new American steel manufacturing and shipbuilding investments,” Oceantic Network CEO Liz Burdock said in a statement.
