“The court case and the accusations against him are politically motivated,” committee president Berit Reiss-Andersen said.

“The conviction is a tragedy for Bialiatski personally. The verdict shows that the current regime uses all means to suppress its critics.”

Bialiatski founded Viasna, the most prominent rights group in Belarus, a country often described as “Europe’s last dictatorship”.

He was in the dock with two allies after they were jailed in the aftermath of historic demonstrations against the disputed re-election of strongman President Alexander Lukashenko in 2020.

The 60-year-old and his associates had been convicted of smuggling and financing “activities that grossly violate public order”, Viasna said.

Bialiatski was among the three co-recipients of last year’s Nobel Peace Prize, alongside Russian and Ukrainian human rights groups.

Founded in 1996, Bialiatski’s organisation is Belarus’s most prominent rights group. It has charted the increasingly authoritarian tendencies of Lukashenko and his security forces.