Biaroza: court dismissed lawsuit of human rights defenders

13.01.2010. Tags: administrative trials, pickets, human rights defenders, Biaroza.

The Biaroza district court finished the trial of the lawsuit of the human rights defenders Vasil Azaranka and Siarzhuk Rusetski against the refusal of Biaroza district executive committee to authorize the picket dated to Human Rights Day, 10 December.

The lawsuit of Azaranka and Rusetski was dismissed, allegedly because the applicants hadn’t concluded agreements with the police, ambulance and communal utilities for serving the action. The human rights defenders say the court verdict didn’t surprise them and such a result was quite predictable in a country where human rights are respected only in paper.

Valiantsin Stefanovich, lawyer of the Human Rights Center Viasna, considers the verdict of the Biaroza district court unlawful: ‘The practice of collecting the money for exercising a constitutional right is absolutely inadmissible in a democratic country. The right to peaceful assemblies is guaranteed by the Constitution and should be guaranteed by the state. By this refusal the state violates the freedom of Belarusian citizens to association and expression of their views.’

The human rights defenders intend to appeal against the verdict of the Biaroza district court.

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