Sviatlana Zavadskaya sues Mikhail Tsitsiankou

Sviatlana Zavadskaya, widow of the forcibly kidnapped ORT TV cameraman, appealed to court against the decision of Mikhail Titsenkou, deputy head of the Minsk city executive committee, on banning a picket, dedicated to the anniversary of disappearing of Yury Zakharanka, the former minister of the internal affairs.

As Narodnaya Volia” newspaper learnt, Sviatlana Zavadskaya sent a compliant to the Maskouski district court on 26 May.

She doesn’t believe in objectivity and farness of Belarusian judges. ‘In early May I wrote an application to the Minsk city executive committee for holding a picket. Mikhail Tsitsiankou, deputy head of the Minsk city executive committee, didn’t permit to hold a picket, he explained his decision with the fact that holding of mass events is forbidden at a distance less than 200 meters from metro stations and pedestrian underpasses. Thought there are places in Kastrychnitskaya Square, where a 100-people picket can be held at a distance mote than 200 meters from metro stations and pedestrian underpasses. However, neither Tsitsiankou nor his assistants phoned to me and cleared out where on Kastrychnitskaya Square I was going to have a picket,’ commented Sviatlana Zavadskaya.

In her suit the woman asks the court to acknowledge the decision of M.Tsitsiankou as ‘unlawful and violating the civil right for assembly’ and oblige the Minsk city executive committee ‘give public apologies for violation of her civil rights.’