Baranavichy: legal lynching of beaten entrepreneur Volha Minko

On 6 July the court of Baranavichy and Baranavichy district considered the administrative case against the entrepreneurs Volha Minko, brought under Article 23.4 of the Administrative Code – ‘insubordination to an official on duty’.

Recently the entrepreneur has been beaten by the senior tax inspector at the central market of the city, at her working place. She has registered the beating at the forensic expertise and complained to the police against the actions of the tax inspector.

The trial is protracted. Moreover: the police, the prosecutor’s office and the judge Aksana Sarakhman are trying to intimidate the victim.

The trial was attended by many entrepreneurs from Minsk and other cities of Belarus, which must have scared the judge, because a trial started long after the due time. There was even an attempt to postpone the trial without holding this sitting as the ‘protocol of preliminary court sitting of 30 June 2009’ hasn’t been allegedly prepared by the court secretary.

At the beginning of the trial Volha Minko solicited for being issued high quality copies of all her case for familiarization, because it was impossible to read the garbage she has been given before. As a result the court sitting was interrupted for 20 minutes. However, the judge declined the following petition of the defendant, who asked to give her several days for familiarization with the case materials. Instead, the next sitting was appointed on 7 July, 10 a.m.! The judge also ignored the complaints of Volha Minko about bad health and the impossibility to come to the trial early in the morning.

The judge also declined the petition for admitting to the trial the lawyer Karnei Piatrovich as her legal representative. By this the judge violated Article 62 of the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus.