During his last stay behind bars, the Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Belyatsky wrote a literary history of penal systems in Belarus. As a political prisoner, he found his own form of resistance.
The imprisoned Belarusian Ales Belyatsky is one of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winners.
Just days before the news of the Norwegian Nobel Committee broke the news, Ales Belyatsky celebrated his 60th birthday this fall in a basement of Minsk’s remand prison number 1. Because the historic building is on Valodarska Street, it’s known in Minsk as Valodarka . After two centuries of continuous use, the complex with its characteristic round corner towers is in a state of disrepair.