Ales Belyatsky Courtesy of spring96.org

“Poland unequivocally deprecates the unjustified and harsh prison sentence of four and a half years along with the seizure of property” imposed on Ales Belyatsky, head of the Viasna Human Rights Center, by Belarus, said Poland's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Thursday.

“Poland and the European Union appeal to Belarus to immediately release Ales Belyatsky and other political prisoners as a precondition for the European Union’s dialogue with the Republic of Belarus,” reads the statement.

Mr Belyatsky was charged for tax evasion after Polish and Lithuanian officials unknowingly supplied Belarus's financial authorities with information about bank accounts he holds there. At the time, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski issued a formal apology, and two officials in the Prosecutor General’s Office lost their jobs over the affair.

Both Lithuania and Poland then suspended bilateral legal assistance treaties with Belarus.

Viasna is one of the leading Belarusian organizations providing financial and legal assistance for political prisoners, especially since the government crackdown on opposition following the December 2010 presidential elections and subsequent protests. The NGO says the money held by Mr Belyatsky in Poland and Lithuania was used by the organization for its activities.

“The trial was purely political in nature and the charges of concealing income served merely as a pretext to attack the non-governmental sector on which the regime wants to assume full control. Sentencing Ales Belyatsky is in fact sentencing human rights in Belarus,” said the Polish Foreign Ministry.