Appeal of Vitsebsk activists turned down
On 14 October Alena Hrabianchuk, Judge of the
Chyhunachny District Court of Vitsebsk, turned down the appeal of Aliaksei
Haurutsikau, chairman of the electoral headquarters of Mikalai Statkevich
during the presidential election in 2010, Khrystafor Zhaliapau, head of the
Vitsebsk region organization of the Movement “For Freedom!”, and a member of
the Conservative-Christian Party “Belarusian Popular Front”, Yan Dziarzhautsau.
The applicants asked the court to give a legal assessment to actions of Yury
Maskaliou, the head of the Chyhunachny District Executive Committee of
Vitsebsk, who hadn't granted a single application for holding a mass event
during the year.
As it follows from the court ruling, Yury Maskaliou had right when refusing to
authorize such actions, as he was guided by ruling #881 of the Vitsebsk City
Executive Committee concerning the order of filing applications. According to
this ruling, the applicants needed to conclude service agreements with the
police, the medics and the public utilities before applying for the
authorization of an action. The agreements were to be attached to the
application.
The applicants also demanded that the judge gave assessment to actions of the
heads of these institutions as well, as they repeatedly refused to conclude
service agreements without the prior consent of the authorities. As it was
found during the trial which started on 13 October, it was found out that there
was no need to conclude special agreements with the police and the public
utilities, as they would implement their duties anyway.
However, Judge Alena Hrabianchuk didn't consider this issue – she just
recommended the applicants to initiate trials on each refusal from each
concrete organization.
