Andrei Sannikov: Lukashenka's Monsters Will Judge The Nobel Laureate

Ales Bialiatski must be freed by the efforts of the whole world.

The Nobel Peace Prize ceremony took place in Oslo.

Andrei Sannikov, the leader of the European Belarus Civil Campaign and former presidential candidate, also watched the ceremony.

The politician answered the questions of the Radio Racja:

— What are your impressions of Natallia Pinchuk's speech?

— First of all, I would like to congratulate you and me on this award. This is really a great honour and great support for Ales, for those behind bars, and for all Belarusians.

As for the speech, it is called a lecture, it made a very strong impression. Indeed, it was the level of a Nobel laureate. And the fact that it was in the Belarusian language was wonderful!

— What do you think as a diplomatic official, does this somehow contribute to drawing attention to Belarus again? Is it possible that this will lead to the imminent release of political prisoners or a change in the conditions of detention?

— I think it will definitely help. Obviously, there's a lot of attention coming back now and I don't think it's going to happen overnight. Natallia is in difficult conditions because her husband Ales is behind bars, and she also has to meet with journalists and politicians. I think it's very important.

I would like to note that she no longer spoke about the specific number of political prisoners that we have, the media indicates the number, but she said that we have thousands of political prisoners and tens of thousands of repressed people. It's true, and I would like to emphasize this point.

The world must react to this and must respond to the words of the Nobel laureate. That is, the performance was strong by itself, and those moments that sounded there, and those words that were quoted by both Ales and Natallia. It was worthy so much that I was just delighted.

I would like to note that Ales Bialiatski is the only Nobel laureate in history who will be judged. Others we know have already been convicted, and they were behind bars.

Can you imagine that these Lukashenka’s monsters will judge the Nobel laureate! All the cases against political prisoners were framed-up, and everyone is well aware of this. And especially against Ales.

Therefore, we must make Ales free and allow him to receive this award. And we need to insist on this and draw the attention of the world community to this.

I would also like to note that Ms Oleksandra Matviichuk from Ukraine also said that the criminals Putin and Lukashenka (she mentioned Lukashenka) should be convicted. And now three Nobel laureates call Putin and Lukashenka criminals and murderers. And so they say all over the world. And they will keep saying this even more.

This is a very powerful support, firstly, for the struggle of our people for freedom, for human rights, for independence, and secondly, this is a very decisive step towards the International Tribunal, which should appear to condemn these criminals.