Valiantsin Stefanovich to have two trials on 2 December

The trial concerning the exaction of taxes from human rights defender Valiantsin Stefanovich will start at 10 a.m. on 2 December at the Partyzanski District Court (Siamashka Street, 33). It was to have started on 15 November, but was postponed on Valiantsin's request, who couldn't appear in court for family reasons.

Moreover, Stefanovich's appeal against the fine, imposed on him by the Partyzanski District Tax Inspection of Minsk, will be considered at the Partyzanski District Court the same day, at 11.30 a.m.

The human rights defender is also charged with tax-evasion (like his convicted colleague, Chairman of the HRC “Viasna” Ales Bialiatski) for keeping money on a foreign bank account. The information about the finances was passed to the Belarusian law machinery by the appropriate state organs of Lithuania and Poland. However, the sum which was discovered on Stefanovich's account was to small for starting criminal proceedings, as it happened in Bialiatski's case.