Imprisoned Belarusian human rights defender has been nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize together with Russian human rights defender Ludmila Alexeyeva. Their names were put forward by Norwegian legal experts. The Belarusian human rights defender is serving a prison sentence over a fabricated and politically motivated charge of tax evasion.

Ales Bialiatski is the head of the Viasna Human Rights Centre which is engaged in defending and promoting political, culture and social rights. He is also the Vice President of the International Human Rights Federation. 

On 24 November 2011 a court in Minsk found Ales Bialiatski guilty of “tax evasion on a particularly large scale” and sentenced him to four and a half years harsh regime prison colony and confiscation of property, “including property registered in other people’s names”.

The court also fined him 721 million Belarusian roubles or around 82,700 USD as supposedly unpaid tax and 36 million (around 4,100 USD) for the state’s expenses.