Baranavichy: trial on the prohibition of Milavidy feast postponed to 15 July
On 12 July the hearings
on the appeal of an activist of the civic campaign "Tell the
Truth" Viachaslau Bolbat against the bans on the Milavidy fest
in the memory of insurgents of 1863, issued by the Baranavichy
District Executive Committee on 3 and 20 May, took place at the
Baranavichy District and City Court.
The case was considered
by Judge Vera Uhlik.
In his speech, Viachaslau Bolbat noted
that the organizers of the cultural festival fulfilled all the
requirements of the Law "On Mass Events in the Republic of
Belarus." He asked the court to invalidate the decision of the
executive committee of 20 May 2013 concerning the prohibition of the
Milavidy festifal on 9 June.
The head of the legal department
of the Baranavichy District Executive Committee Volha Firyan and the
deputy head of the department of ideological work, culture and youth
affairs Dzmitry Varvashenia stated, that the organizers were
prohibited to hold the event on 2 June, as the cultural department
executive committee planned to hold its own event dedicated 150 th
anniversary of the Battle of Milavidskay 1863 at the same time in the
same place. However, the event wasn't held and the state-owned
newspaper "Nash Krai" wrote nothing about it. The website
of the executive committee didn't provide any information about the
event either.
Then the representatives
of the Baranavichy District
Executive Committee noted that on 9 June Milavidy
festival was banned because
the applicants had not signed new contracts with the district police,
health center and
housing utilities and
did not meet other requirements of Art. 5 of the Law "On Mass
Events in the Republic of Belarus."
"This is a
nonsense. Why sign new contract when we just asked to change the date
of the event to 9 June", said Viachalsua Bolbat.
The
final sitting on the case will start at 9 a.m. on 15 July.