Vitsebsk Regional Court dismisses Antanina Pivanos' complaint
The pensioner Antanina
Pivanos is the author of an embroidery with the words "Our
Father," who received an administrative punishment for coming to
the center of Vitsebsk with this embroidery in 2008.
After
applying to the UN Human Rights Committee she received a letter with
the Committee's decision, according to which the Belarusian side was
to restore the violated rights of Mrs. Pivanos, pay her compensation
for the confiscated property and return the amount of the fine, to
which she had been sentenced illegally.
Antanina Pivanos is
trying to make the authorities implement the decision of the UN Human
Rights Committee. At first she applied to the Chyhunachny District
Court of Vitsebsk, but on 17 May the court rejected her appeal. The
recent appeal to the Vitsebsk Regional Court didn't bring any results
either: the verdict of the Chyhunachny District Court was left
unchanged.
Antanina Pivanos intends to appeal the verdict to
the higher court instances, as she did earlier, when the case
concerned the confiscated embroidery and the fine. If she doesn't
succeed in the enforcement of the Committee's decision, she will most
probably apply to the UN again to appeal the non-implementation of
its decisions by the Belarusian authorities.
The incident with
the embroidered prayer, with which, in fact, it all started, occurred
in Vitebsk on 25 March 2008. Antanina Pivanos decided to present her
embroidery to the Vitsebsk oppositionist Barys Khamaida on the
Freedom Day. She brought the embroidery (which took several months of
work) to the so-called Blue House where Mr. Khamaida distributed the
independent press, and unfurled it there. The police considered it as
demonstration of a poster of an opposition content. As a result,
Antanina Pivanos was punished with a fine for alleged participation
in an unauthorized picket, and the embroidery was confiscated from
her.