Siarhei Salash is found guilty of defamation

11.09.2008. Tags: administrative trials, elections-2008.

On 10 September a judge of Barysau district court Alena Bachyshcha found an unregistered candidate for deputy Siarhei Salash guilty under Article #9.2 of the Administrative Code of Belarus and fined him 875 000 rubles (about $410).

The deputy head of Barysau district executive committee Valiantsina Shutko and the librarian of secondary school #11 (secretary of the electoral commission of Barysau town constituency #62) had accused Salash of having called them ‘falsifiers of the elections’. This accusation was supported by two witnesses – the workers of Barysau district executive committee Malein and Danskaya.

The court ignored the testimony of Salash’s witness, the head of his initiative group Aleh Matskevich because of his friendly relations with the defendant. By the way, Malein and Danskaya are subordinate to the deputy bead of Barysau district executive committee Valiantsina Shutko, but the court paid attention to their testimonies.

Danskaya and Malein stated that Siarhei Salash had said to the leader of the Movement For Freedom Alexander Milinkevich that Shutko and Stasava were falsifiers of the elections. According to Salash, the judge stated that Milinkevich was called to the court by a writ. However, after the trial Siarhei Salash phoned to Alexander Milinkevich, who said that he did not receive any writs.

Salash’s lawyer Pavel Sapelka intends to appeal to a higher court instance against the verdict of Barysau district court.

Human rights activists for free elections