Trial on Labkovich's case postponed again

On 7 October at the Savetski District Court of Minsk the member of the Council of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Uladzimir Labkovich was informed that the trial would take place tomorrow and start at 9 a.m. This is already the fourth postponement of the trial.

As said by Mr. Labkovich, today he came to the court at 9 a.m. (the time at which the trial was to have started), but the court secretary handed him a writ for 9 a.m. on 8 October without offering any explanations. He was told that the police officer Smaliak who was summonsed to the court as a witness and whose absence resulted in two postponements of the court hearings, finally came to the court and was also handed a writ for 8 October.

It's worth mentioning that the second trial of the administrative case of Uladzimir Labkovich was started by the deputy head of the Savetski District Court of Minsk Eduard Yakubouski on 18 September. As far as the police officer Smaliak, who had detained the human rights defender, didn't appear at court, the trial was postponed first to 30 September and then to 7 October.

Bear in mind that Uladzimir Labkovich appealed to the Minsk City Court the ruling of Judge of the Savetski District Court Dzmitry Pauliuchenka of 6 August according to which he was fined 2 million rubles under part 1 of Article 23.34 of the Administrative Code (“violation of the order of organization and holding mass event”), for handing out informational leaflets about the imprisoned human rights defender Ales Bialiatski on 5 August. The Minsk City Court reversed the verdict and sent the case back to the Savetski District Court for a new consideration by another judge.