Court Left Teacher without Job
Yury Bachyshcha, associate professor of Chair of Slavic History at Belarusian State Teacher’s University will not be restored at his job. Yury Bachyshcha believes that he was fired for his political convictions. The teacher appealed to court asking to restore him in his position and make the university administration compensate for the forced truance. He believes the grounds fro his dismissal were absolutely illegal. 146 students signed the statement in defense of their former teacher. Maskouski court of Minsk (Judge S. Nikalayeu) did not satisfy the suit. Yury Bachyshcha has a wife and a baby son.
The teacher was fired after the presidential election in March. He worked as an independent observer. The university administration didn’t like that. In the beginning he was suggested that he could quit on his own initiative. He refused. Then he was fired for an “immoral action”. He was never explained what exactly was meant by an “immoral action”. During the trial it turned out that the “immoral action” was the fact that Bachyshcha allegedly distributed cartoons with a character looking like the president. University rector Kukharchyk tried to press criminal charges against Bachyshcha for distribution of the cartoon. During the check-up the prosecutor’s office failed to find any proofs that teacher Bachyshcha had any relation to the CD with cartoons. Moreover, it was found out that the cartoons were recorded on the CD from the university computer.
Yury Bachyshcha demanded several times that rector Piotr Kukharchyk is summoned to the trial. He is convinced that the rector personally ordered to fire him. “The court rejected my appeal. It also ruled that I should not be restored at work and should not receive compensation for forced truancy. I think the court decision is illegal. All facts demonstrated that the decision about my dismissal is illegal and unfair”.
It is said in Yury Bachyshcha’s documents, that he was fired for an “immoral action”. “It is impossible to find a new job with such a statement in the documents”, -- says lawyer Valianstin Stefanovic, -- “our courts lose independence the moment they begin to consider cases which are related to politics. The court decision is based not on the facts and the law but on the political expediency”, -- Stefanovic says.
