Court conveyer in Brest: 25 minutes for hearing cases of 2 journalists

The Brest regional court heard appeals of journalist Ales Liauchuk and independent journalist from Biaroza Tamara Shapiotkina on January 22. The regional court upheld the decisions of district courts. Shapiotkina appealed against a fine of 30 penalty units issued on December 17. The journalist attended the trial against Ales Liauchuk. She said there was no sense in waiting for the hearing of her case, Radio Racyja reports.

“My trial was to begin at 11 a.m. I offered judge Natallia Surma not to wait until 11 and hear my case a bit earlier. She said: ‘Of course, let’s hear your case now.’ She already had a decision on her table. She didn’t leave the courtroom, she didn’t think. She listened to Liauchuk and me and then said the decision to fine us was right.”

The Biaroza district court found Tamara Shapiotkina guilty of working for a foreign media outlet without accreditation and punished her for the “illegal production of mass media products”. The appeal filed by Ales Liauchuk against the decision of the Leninski district court of Brest was dismissed.

It took the judge 25 minutes to hear the appeal of two journalists.