Human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka: I’ll find online detractors
Leanid Sudalenka, activist of the campaign “Human Rights Defenders against the Death Penalty in Belarus”
June 19, Judge Anatol Sotnikau of Homel’s Chyhunachny District Court granted an appeal lodged by local human rights defender Leanid Sudalenka against an earlier decision by the District Police Department who closed a defamation case initiated by the human rights activist after unknown persons insulted and slandered against him and other activists of the Homel region on the website gomelbest.com.
The complaint stemmed from an online publication entitled “A Defender of Murderers from Homel”.
According to the human rights defender, the post humiliated his honor and dignity in connection with the protection of death convicts’ rights in the UN Human Rights Committee. The anonymous author writes that Mr. Sudalenka allegedly receives fabulous fees from foreign sponsors. The detractors say that the activists protected by Sudalenka are “crazy provocateurs”, accusing him of “submitting knowingly incorrect applications for mass events in support of an economic criminal Bialiatski”.
Leanid Sudalenka asked the Regional Police Department chief to investigate into the false information that humiliates his honor, dignity and business reputation. His statement was forwarded to the Chyhunachny District Police Department, saying that the matter was “beyond the competence of the department in charge of solving crimes in the high-tech sphere”.
The District Police Department refused to open an administrative case, seeing no elements of a defamation offense. In addition, the District Department said that the website was registered under a Dutch IP-address, and the actual owner of the website resided in London.
The website has been active for over seven years and has systematically posted negative materials telling about the political and civil society activists of the Homel region. A complaint by one of the victims was replied by the Homel police a few years ago, who said that the website was registered in St. Petersburg.
Leanid Sudalenka believes that the police have the technical possibility to find out the IP-address of the website’s editorial staff, which administrates it in the territory of Belarus. The human rights defender says he will surely find the online detractors.
