Mahiliou court dismisses case against security guard who prevented distribution of independent newspaper

On January 15, the Kastrychnitski District Court of Mahiliou held the third hearing in the case against Dzmitry Prokharau, a security guard of the 777 store, who prevented activist Viktar Charavukhin from distributing the Novy Chas newspaper.

On November 5, Charavuhin had a conflict with the new guard who pushed him out of the shop and threatened to strangle him if he saw him again.

“It was a new guard. He called the newspaper a fascist one, and said that I was a BPF activist. He grabbed me and began to choke. I had minor abrasions,” said Viktar Charavukhin.

On November 8, the CCP BPF activist called the police to tell about the incident and write a statement. As a result, the guard faced charges under Art. 9.3 of the Administrative Code, “assault”.

In his speech during the opening session, the 40-year-old security guard called the Novy Chas newspaper a fascist edition and said that, in his opinion, such papers led to the events in Ukraine. Meanwhile, he denied that he personally called Viktar Charavukhin a fascist. The newspaper, according to Prokharau, features a fascist, Nazi and nationalist content.

Judge Tatsiana Mikhailava considered Viktar Charavukhin’s evidence contradictory: according to the judge, they were not confirmed in the course of studying the circumstances of the case. At the same time, the judge considered that Prokharau had consistently proved that he did not call the activist a Nazi. Thus, the court said that the guard’s guilt of insulting the activist was not proven and dismissed the case against him.

Source: mahilyowspring.org