Human rights defender Uladzimir Labkovich punished with a fine on the fourth attempt
On 8 October the
administrative case of the member of the Council of the Human Rights
Center “Viasna” Uladzimir Labkovich was finally reviewed by the
Savetski District Court of Minsk.
Bear in mind that Uladzimir
Labkovich appealed the ruling of Judge of the Savetski District Court
Dzmitry Pauliuchenka of 6 August,
according to which he was punished with a fine under
part 1 of Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses
(“violation of the rules for organizing and holding mass events”).
The Minsk City Court reversed the verdict and returned the case to
the Savetski District Court for review by another judge.
On
the fourth attempt Judge Eduard Yakubouski, having questioned as
witness the police officer Smaliak (who had detained Mr. Labkovich),
issued a verdict which has no substantial differences from the
earlier one – to punish the defendant 3.9 million
rubles.
Commenting on the judgment,
Mr. Labkovich said: "The testimony of
policeman Smaliak is far from the truth, to
put it mildly, and sometimes is plainly false. For instance, he
asserted that I had cried out slogans together with Reviaka, urged
passers-by to release Ales Bialiatski and even continued doing so
during the detention.
The absurdity
of this situation is that in this case a precedent was set when the
distribution of postcards is regarded as an
unauthorized mass event. Of course, such verdict is completely
illegal and will be appealed at a higher court instance.”
Human
rights defenders Uladzimir Labkovich and
Tatsiana Reviaka were detained on 5 August 2013 near the capital's
central department store, where they were
handing out postcards
on the occasion of the second anniversary of the arrest of the
chairman of the HRC "Viasna" Ales Bialiatski.