Lawyer Hary Pahaniayla denied compensation for illegal travel restrictions
On January 23,
Maskouski District Court of Minsk pronounced judgment in the lawsuit brought by
Hary Pahaniayla, chairman of the BHC’s legal committee, against a number of
government agencies. The
human rights defender contested the actions of three ministries at a time – Ministry
of Finance, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of the Interior. However, without success.
Hary
Pahaniayla demanded compensation for moral damage, which, according to the
human rights activist, was inflicted by the foreign travel ban.
Hary
Pahaniayla learned about the restrictions in March 2012. The
official reason for blacklisting the lawyer was that he supposedly had
financial irregularities. He
only managed to prove the illegality of the grounds in the summer – then Maskouski
District Court ruled to return him his right to leave the country. A “technical failure” was
named as the cause of the error.
Hary Pahaniayla disagreed
with the wording. He
wanted those responsible to be punished and demanded 3 million rubles in moral damages.
The
defendants (the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of
Interior) said they did not recognize the claims of Hary Pahaniayla, but tried
to shift the blame on one another. The
representative of the Ministry of Finance said that if the court decided to
recover damages, it should be paid by another Ministry. According
to the Ministry of Justice, the courts did not pass the information to include the
lawyer in the travel ban data bank and the decision was not taken at their
agency. Aliaksei
Biahun, head of the Department of Citizenship and Migration of the Interior
Ministry, presented to the court an objection to Pahaniayla’s claim. He
argued that it was impossible to determine a specific person who was to blame
for the “techical failure.” It
is also impossible to extract the server for technical expertise, as this will
lead to paralysis of the system of border control for 30-40 days. According
to Aliaksei Biahun, although the archive has a paper on the travel restrictions,
it cannot however be either retrieved or printed. He
said it was also impossible to present a document lifting the ban.
While
the court did not grant Pahaniayla’s request to retrieve the necessary
documents from the archives, the plaintiff says he is going to claim it through
other institutions. In
his speech, the human rights defender said that “we are dealing with
falsification of data.” He
noted that for this reason his right to travel had been violated for more than
three months.
“My right to a
good name has been violated. My right to
dignity and honor was also violated. After
all, the basis on which my right to leave the country was restricted are in the
public opinion discrediting me as a citizen and a public figure. I had
to fight and still struggling for my good name. So
I ask the court to collect from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of
Interior, for which the country’s treasury should be responsible, 3 million
rubles and 300,000 of state tax return.”
The
Judge heard several witnesses: human rights defenders Aleh Hulak and Valiantsin
Stefanovich, who was were also on the list of persons restricted to travel
abroad due to a “technical failure”. In
total, the ban on leaving the country affected 17 opposition politicians,
journalists and activists. Stefanovih
expressed his doubt that the claim would be satisfied, because there was no
confidence in the courts when it comes to such high-profile cases. But
if the claim by Pahaniayla was granted, he would also seek compensation for
moral damage.
“I
have no doubt that this was a planned action of the authorities against representatives
of the Belarusian opposition and non-governmental organizations to restrict their
constitutional rights,” said the human rights defender.