Office of Prosecutor General leaves warning to Liabedzka and Pashkevich in force

The Office of the Prosecutor General upheld the official warning that had been issued by the deputy Prosecutor General Aliaksei Stuk to the leader of the United Civil Party and the leader of the UCP youth wing, Young Democrats, Mikhail Pashkevich, for having allegedly organized the printing of the newspaper Glotok Vozdukha.

‘The Prosecutor General, Ryhor Vasilevich, answered that he left the official warning in force’, said Anatol Liabedzka. ‘At the same time, he wrote that we could apply to court’.

The warning was issued in January 2008. ‘As the prosecutor’s office stated, in this newspaper there published some libeling materials. Two articles of the Criminal Code were mentioned in the text of the warning – ‘insult of Lukashenka’s honor and dignity’ and ‘discredit of the Republic of Belarus’,’ Liabedzka said.

He added that the prosecutor’s office presented no evidence of Pashkevich’s and his relation to the printing of the newspaper. Instead, the officers referred to some ‘operative information’. ‘We appealed to the Prosecutor General against this warning, based on the ‘operative information. Predictably enough, Ryhor Vasilevich left the warning in force,’ said the UCP leader.

Anatol Liabedzka says that he and Mikhail Pashkevich are not going to put up with such injustice. They intend to go to court. ‘Knowing our court system well enough being aware that the action of the law ends where the politics and the authorities’ interest start, we are still going to do it. If a ‘liberalization’ has been declared, let’s show that there is no liberalization and the court doesn’t issue fair verdicts,’ pointed Liabedzka.