Supreme Court Liquidates St. George Orthodox Youth Union

According to http://www.belngo.info

On 3 March the Supreme Court of Belarus liquidated the national public association St. George Union of Orthodox Youth. The liquidation suit was filed by the Ministry of Justice. Its representative at the trial was the specialist of the board of public organizations Iauhen Kakusha.

St. George Union of Orthodox Youth was registered in 1999. At the moment of the liquidation the organization was headed by Mikola Astreika, who on 21 February was detained by the KGB together with three other members of the unregistered organization Partnership. During the preliminary hearings M.Astreika confessed the union either had no legal address or used it with violation of the legal provisions. The Ministry of Justice twice warned the organization for it, but the organization didn’t obtain a proper legal address (it is almost impossible for an NGO or a branch of a political party to do it in the present conditions). The court qualified this violation as a gross one and liquidated the organization on the basis of paragraph 5 of article 24 of the law On public associations. The verdict was announced by the judge Larysa Filimanikhina. Mr Astreika wasn’t able to attend the trial because of the continuing detention at the investigative isolator KGB.