Global Outlook

 On Thursday, the jailed Nobel Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski began his trial in Minsk in what his supporters believe is an effort to crack down on Viasna, the leading rights organisation in Belarus that he created. Ales Bialiatski, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize last year, created Viasna (Spring), the most well-known rights organisation in the totalitarian nation, in 1996. Ales Bialiatski, along with his friends Valentin Stefanovich and Vladimir Labkovich, was reportedly spotted in the defendants' cage at the beginning of the hearing, according to Viasna's social media posts. Ales Bialiatski, 60, and his comrades were imprisoned following massive anti-regime protests in 2020 when autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in elections that were widely recognised as being rigged. Vladimir Putin's assistance allowed Lukashenko to repress the opposition movement, imprisoning or expelling his detractors. Following the start of the high-profile Viasna trial, th...