SEPTEMBER 23 SUPREME COURT HOLDS FIRST PRETRIAL HEARING ON VIASNA LIQUIDATION. DATE OF TRIAL NOT KNOWN YET

During the pretrial hearing held by the Supreme Court on September 23 the parties could state their positions.
Viasna was represented by its chairperson Ales Bialatski, lawyers Valiantsin Stefanovic and Uladz Labkovich. Neanila Fishkina represented the plaintiff (the Justice Ministry). Judge Valiantsina Kulik presided at the hearing.
Valiantsin Stefanovic (Viasna lawyer): “We made a motion to suspend execution of the legal process. We think the suit does not meet the requirements of the Code of Civic Procedures. It does not contain any proofs of the reported facts, and the facts are not concretized. The suit says our documents have a number of forged signatures, but says nothing of whose signatures were forged and on what documents. Thus we have no possibility to prepare for the trial. We need to bring witnesses who would prove the signatures belonged to them but now we don’t know who we need as witnesses.
Thus the principle of equality of the parties was violated. That’s why Judge Valiantsina Kulik asked the Justice Ministry to concretize their suit. She decided to hold the second pretrial hearing which will take place on September 30. Then we will meet again. Neanila Fishkina will prepare materials which contain facts for us, and we will start preparing for the trial. Most probably, the trial will begin after October 17”