Court blocks Valiantsin Stefanovich’s complaint against ban on Viasna website
Deputy chairman of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich
Having appealed against the decision of the Tsentralny District Court, who dismissed a complaint against the actions of the Prosecutor General’s Office, human rights defender Valiantsin Stefanovich has not yet received any reaction, either a notification of the date of consideration or its receipt by the court.
A decision to terminate proceedings in Valiantsin Stefanovich’s claim against Prosecutor General’s Office was issued by the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk on the basis of paragraph 1, Part 1, Article 164 of the Code of Civil Procedure of Belarus on February 18. On February 20, the human rights defender, in the manner and within the period set by the Code, sent a private complaint to the Tsentralny District Court.
According to the terms of procedures, the complaint should have reached the Minsk City Court by March 15. However, as Valiantsin Stefanovich recently found out, his complaint and case file are still in the District Court.
On this occasion, the human rights defender complained to the Minsk City Court, saying that “the facts indicate a serious violation on the part of the court staff of the admission rules of appeals and private complaints against judicial rulings”.
Moreover, Valiantsin Stefanovich says that he has previously complained about the poor work of the Office of Civil Affairs of the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk.
“A letter from the Minsk City Court of 6 February said that the allegations were confirmed. This fact was discussed at a working meeting with the employees of the court, who were instructed to prevent similar violations in the future work of the court. However, the situation described above shows that the staff of the Tsentralny District Court of Minsk failed to learn the lesson, as they continue to violate the rules, which results in illegal delays of trials,” says the human rights activist in his complaint.
Valiantsin Stefanovich asks to inspect these facts and bring the perpetrators to liability.
On February 18, Judge Alena Siamak of the Minsk Tsentralny District Court ruled to recognize Valiantsin Stefanovich an “improper applicant” and ceased proceedings in his lawsuit against the decision of the Prosecutor General’s Office to blacklist Viasna’s website spring96.org as a resource with restricted access. Later, the human rights activist exercised his right to file a private complaint against the court ruling.
