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Belarus has sentenced the Nobel peace prize-winning Ales Bialiatski, 60, to 10 years in prison.

He was convicted of smuggling and financing "actions grossly violating public order", the Viasna human rights group said. His supporters say the authoritarian regime of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko is trying to silence him.

Mr Bialiatski established Viasna in 1996 in response to the brutal crackdown of street protests that year by Mr Lukashenko and is a veteran of the human rights movement in Belarus.

Kostya Staradubets, a spokesperson for Viasna, told Newshour the sentences imposed on the three activists were "breaking [their] hearts."

(Photo: Nobel Prize winner Ales Bialiatski is seen in the defendants' cage in the courtroom at the start of the hearing in Minsk on January 5, 2023. Credit: Getty Images)