The Polish leaders met with the wife of the imprisoned Nobel laureate Bialiatski

WARSAW, Poland — Polish leaders met the wife of jailed Belarusian human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Bialiatski on Tuesday to stress Warsaw’s continued support for Belarus’ democratic opposition and political prisoners.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau met Natalia Pinchuk in Warsaw, and President Andrzej Duda also met her.

Bialiatski is one of Belarus’ leading human rights advocates and one of the winners of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison earlier this month, the latest step in a years-long crackdown on dissent that has gripped the former Soviet nation since 2020.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Lukasz Jasina said Rau told Pinchuk that Poland would do everything in its power to help Bialiatski, considering him a hero and his wife a symbol of his struggle.

Speaking to reporters, Pinchuk said that she had not been in contact with her husband since the verdict at the beginning of the month. He said the last time he was with her was on November 10, when they were separated by glass and they spoke on the phone.