He has been called "a pillar of the human rights movement in Eastern Europe" by The New York Times, and recognised as a prominent pro-democracy activist in Belarus.

On 3 March 2023, Bialiatski was sentenced in Minsk to ten years in prison for "cash smuggling" as well as "financing actions and groups that grossly violated public order."

Human rights activists view the charges as fabricated in order to silence Bialiatski and his movement after he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

[citation needed] From 1985 to 1986, he served in the army as an armoured vehicle driver in an antitank artillery battalion near Yekaterinburg (then Sverdlovsk), Russia.

On 28 October 2003 the Supreme Court of Belarus cancelled the state registration of the Viasna Human Rights Centre for its role in the observation of the 2001 presidential election.

[2] On 4 August 2011, Bialiatski was arrested under charges of tax evasion (“concealment of profits on an especially large scale”, Article 243, part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus).

Bialiatski pleaded not guilty, saying that the money had been received on his bank accounts to cover Viasna's human rights activities.

[9] The activist's release was also requested by EP President Jerzy Buzek,[10] EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, OSCE Chairman Eamon Gilmore,[11] and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti.

Bialiatski served his sentence in penal colony number 2 in the city of Babruysk, working as a packer in a sewing shop.

[citation needed] During his time in prison, Bialiatski wrote many texts on literary topics, essays, memoirs, which were posted to his associates.

Bialiatski was released from prison 20 months ahead of schedule on 21 June 2014 after spending 1,052 days of arbitrary detention in harsh conditions, including serving periods of solitary confinement.

[17] The date of Bialiatski's arrest, 4 August, is celebrated annually as the International Day of Solidarity with the Civil Society of Belarus.

[19] The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Belarus, Miklós Haraszti welcomed his liberation.

[26][27] Amnesty International mentioned that "[t]he trial against Ales Bialiatski and his fellow human rights defenders is a blatant act of injustice wherein the state is clearly seeking to enact revenge for their activism.

"[28] On 3 March 2023, the Belarus judicial system convicted Bialiatski of smuggling and financing political protests, as "actions grossly violating public order", and sentenced him to prison for 10 years.

In March 2006, Bialiatski and Viasna won the 2005 Homo Homini Award of the Czech NGO People in Need, which recognizes "an individual who is deserving of significant recognition due to their promotion of human rights, democracy and non-violent solutions to political conflicts".

In 2006, Bialiatski won the Swedish Per Anger Prize,[33] as well as the Andrei Sakharov Freedom Award of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee.

[39] In 2020, he shared Right Livelihood Award, widely known as "Alternate Nobel Prize" with Nasrin Sotoudeh, Bryan Stevenson, and Lottie Cunningham Wren.

[40] In December of the same year, Bialiatski was named among the representatives of the Belarusian opposition, and honored with the Sakharov Prize by the European Parliament.

They met in 1982 when Ales was a student of Francishak Skaryna Homiel State University and Nataliia studied in the pedagogical college in Lojeu.