Professor Sues University Administration
The prosecutor’s office failed to find corpus delicti in the actions of Yury Bachyshcha, associate professor of the Teacher’s University, for which he had been fired from work.
The ground for Bachyshcha’s dismissal was his “immoral actions” – allegedly, the professor distributed cartoons slandering Alexander Lukashenka. The prosecutor’s office did not find any proofs for this fact and refused to instigate criminal proceedings against the professor.
University representatives claimed that head of department of Slavic History was visited by a student. The student said he had cartoons with a character which looks like the president of Belarus. He allegedly received the cartoons from a class mate, who, in his turn, “received” it from professor Yu. Bachyshcha. The student brought the cartoons in a jump drive. The head of department copied the cartoons to a hard disk.
Yury Bachyshcha was fired on March 23 with the wording: “for immoral behavior which does not correspond to the occupied post” (Art. 47 part 3 of the Labor Code). The associate professor appealed to court challenging the illegal grounds for dismissal. “I didn’t do that. The real reason for my dismissal was my work as an observer during the presidential election”, -- Yury Bachyshcha says, -- “The court started a case on my suit. The hearing started on May 17. However, the court suspended the hearing because the university administration sent the materials to the prosecutor’s office asking to start criminal proceedings against me”. The prosecutor’s office received a report of the student and a CD with cartoons recorded from his jump drive.
Lawyer Valiantsin Stefanovic comments:
-- The next stage is to hear the suit about restoring the teacher at work, which was suspended. The prosecutor’s office examined the situation. The facts were not proved and the criminal case was not started. This is a ground for suing the University rector U. Kukharchyk in order to defend honor and dignity and ask for compensation of moral damage. The rector applied to the prosecutor’s office requesting to press criminal charges against the professor. In fact, he spread information which damages honor and dignity of professor Bashyshcha. Actually, he was accused of committing a crime.
The prosecutor’s office did not find the elements of a crime in the actions of the professor. That means, the grounds for his dismissal are illegal. He was fired under a very serious Article of the Labor Code. If one’s working record says one has been fired for an “immoral behavior”, in fact, it means a “prohibition to practice”. Now the teacher has a legal ground to demand compensation for a forced truancy (over 6 months), and compensation of moral damage for illegal dismissal.
The hearing of the suit will take place at
Yury Bachyshcha plans to lay down one more demand. He wants a public refutation of slander against him. If the court recognizes that the information, which was the ground for his dismissal, was not true, he will demand to refute it in university media.
