Minsk: court sides with Belarusian TV
On 1 February 1 Anastasiya Rahacheuskaya, judge of the
Pershamaiski District Court of Minsk, issued a verdict on the lawsuit of a
resident of Homel, activist of the Movement "For Freedom" Aliaksandr
Pratsko. He filed an appeal against the Belarusian State TV and Radio Company
as a representative of his daughter who is currently serving a prison term.
Halina Pratsko was detained by police in August 2010 as a suspect in trafficking.
Though she wasn’t an accused in the case, she was shown in the TV program
"Zone X» as a person engaged in criminal business, which is a violation of
the presumption of innocence towards Halina, insulting her honor and dignity.
During his speech at court a representative of the Belarusian State TV and
Radio Company said that the video hadn’t been shown by its journalists, that’s
why they couldn’t be held responsible for it. Though Mr. Pratsko showed the
video of that program as evidence, it had no influence on the court – the
appeal was turned down.
“I disagree with the court verdict. We are waiting for the declarative part of
the verdict and will appeal it at the Minsk City Court,” he said.
In November 2011 the Homel City Court turned down the lawsuit of Halina Pratsko
for exaction of a compensation for moral and material hard from the Homel
pre-trial prison #1. She argued that she had acquired a number of illnesses
during the year she had to spend there (that’s how long the investigation into
her case lasted). Among these illnesses there are Raynaud's disease, diseases
of internal organs and nervous system, skin and head lice. According to the
prisoner, no medical aid was rendered to her, that’s why she acquired so many
diseases.
At first the woman was sentenced to 7 years of imprisonment for trafficking. As
a result of many complaints the court changed the charges to “involvement of
people into prostitution” and changed the penalty to two years in prison. However,
even the annulment of the initial accusation didn’t help Aliaksandr Pratsko in getting
a compensation for the insult of honor and dignity from the Belarusian State TV
and Radio Company, in whose program it was stated that the woman was a human
trafficker.
