Brest: fined journalist challenges court verdict

Freelance journalist Aliaksandr Liauchuk filed an appeal against the verdict of the Leninski District Court of Brest of December 24, according to which he was fined 40 basic units.

According to the verdict, Mr. Liauchuk was punished "for violation of the order of production and distribution of media products" (the court regarded as such placing video on the site of the satellite TV channel BelSat).

In his appeal Aliaksandr Liauchuk states his disagreement with the verdict for several reasons. In particular, according to the journalist, when considering the administrative case the court didn't discriminate in all circumstances. In particular, it didn't ascertain whether an offense had really been committed and whether the person tried in the case was liable for the administrative responsibility. In addition, according to Aliaksandr Liauchuk, the court's findings which serve as the basis for the verdict, are contrary to the case file and resulted in the use of the Article of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which establishes the responsibility not for journalists, but for media for editors and distributors of media products.

The journalist also claims that the court ignored the violations that were committed during the preparation of the report of administrative offense (Liauchuk was not called to the police by a summons, as required by the law, and the violation report was drawn up with gross violations of procedural law). Based on these and other findings set out in the complaint, Aliaksandr Liauchuk asks the court to cancel the verdict of the LeninskiDistrict Court of Brest and drop the case against him.