Prosecutor's office ignores appeal of independent journalist

Journalist Aliaksandr Liauchuk asked a prosecutor's office to carry out an inspection regarding the procedure of drawing up a police report against him.

Liauchuk, who was charged with violating part 2 of article 22.9 of the Code of Administrative Offences, noted in his complaint that the police report contained numerous violations. Police officer Kazhenka, who made the report, didn't send the journalist a summons, as required by the law. The report,which was sent to him by mail, didn't contain explanations given by Aliaksandr Liauchuk.

The journalist mentioned other gross procedural violations, but deputy prosecutor of Brest Ivan Chaichyts answered that the prosecutor's office would not deal with the complaint. The deputy prosecutor says the complaint should have been filed “during the administrative process before a court decision was taken”. He recalls that Liauchuk was fined 40 penalty units on December 24. Ivan Chaichyts recommends Liauchuk to appeal against the decision to the Brest regional court, which the journalist already did.

The journalist is surprised with the answer, because instead of controlling the implementation of legislation, the prosecutor's office refused to carry out even a formal check of the procedure of making a police report that contains many gross violations.