The first 60,000-euro (USD 81,000) Vaclav Havel Human Rights Prize was awarded today to Ales Bialiatski, the head of the Vyasna rights group. Bialiatski was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in jail in November 2011 after a trial the West condemned as politically motivated.
The prize was given by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The council is a major human rights organisation.
Vyasna has provided legal assistance to thousands of Belarusians who were fined, arrested or imprisoned for challenging President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian policies. Lukashenko has been dubbed "Europe's last dictator" by some in the West.
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