Aleh Vouchak demands from ‘Sovetskaya Belorussiya’ $25 000
The human rights activist Aleh Vouchak filed the appropriate lawsuit to Savetski district court of Minsk this Tuesday. The reason for the suit is an insulting article that was published in the largest state newspaper. Aleh Vouchak is of the opinion that the article, signed by the nick ‘Xenophont Superfosfatov’, besmeared the activities of the Belarusian human rights activists, including the plaintiff.
‘They wrote that several years ago I provoked a scandal as a result of which I was beaten, and then accused the secret services of it. But I did not make any such statements,’ says Mr. Vouchak.
Aleh Vouchak demands 70 mln Belarusian rubles as compensation for the insult to his honor and dignity. This sum is not occasional – the same sums stand in the lawsuits of the state officials against the non-state newspapers Narodnaya Volia and Zgoda.
Mr. Vouchak also thinks that this trial could help to reach some progress in investigation of the suicide of the human rights activist Yana Paliakova. To his mind, the article by Xenofont Superfosfatov could be one of the reasons that brought her to suicide.
