Trial of Ales Bialiatski: day 3
Ales Bialiatski at trial. Photo by RFE
4 November
is the third day of the court hearings on the criminal case against Ales
Bialiatski, Chairman of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, vice-President of the
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
During the first day of the trial
prosecutor Saikouski read the charges. The court started questioning the
defendant.
On 3 November judge Siarhei
Bandarenka questioned the witnesses.
Before the beginning of the trial the guards checked whether the opposition
activists who wanted to attend the trial didn’t wear T-shirts with portraits of
Ales Bialiatski. Some of them were expelled from the court hall till the end of
the trial.
The court continued studying the case materials. One of them is the translation
of a letter from the Lithuanian Nord Bank, sent to the Ministry of Justice of Lithuania on 7
March 2011. The sums, transferred to Bialiatski’s account by the Norwegian
Helsinki Committee with the inscription “Viasna” in the “destination” graph,
are announced.
***
The prosecutor found in the case the court decision concerning the liquidation
of “Viasna”, written in Belarusian, and asked the translator to translate it
and read in Russian. There are also lists of members of the regional branches
of the Human Rights Center “Viasna” in the case.
After the first volume of the case, including bank records, was read, the
defense voiced its protests. In particular, counsel Zmitser Layeuski stated
that the accusation hadn’t announced the sum which was considered as
Bialiatski’s profit. Moreover, the fact that Bialiatski took money from his
account doesn’t mean that it was his profit.
The second volume of the case is studied, including the ruling on instigation
of the criminal case against Bialiatski, information of the Financial
Investigations Department about the tax check-up concerning Bialiatski, copies
of his income declarations, rulings and other documents.
***
The counsel voices protest against the arrest of some assets, including the car
and the summer residence, as they are co-owned by Ales and his wife Natallia.
According to the counsel, the investigation didn’t implement the errand to find
the property status of Ales Bialiatski and find who transferred money to his
account, what for the money was used and whether Bialiatski was bringing the
money to Belarus
from abroad. The defense is interested in the implementation of these errands
(RFE/RL).
The fourth volume of the case is studied. The prosecutor read aloud one of the
816 personal guarantees for Ales Bialiatski, which were attached to the case
together with the refusal of the investigation to release Ales Bialiatski. The
personal guarantees constitute two volumes of the case.
The counsel states that in August he made a solicitation to the investigation
to find who had transferred money to Ales Bialiatski’s account and to apply to
these institutions with the request to tell the purpose of the transfers.
However, the investigation rejected this motion. (RFE/RL)
All volumes of the criminal case have been considered. The court announced a
break till 3 p.m.
***
The documents which had been provided by the border control committee and the
tax inspection on solicitation of the defense were brought to court. The
prosecutor continues reading the 6th volume of the case.
The judge asked Bialiatski whether he recognized the charges. Bialiatski says
he doesn’t. Bialiatski’s counsel specifies some information of the case
materials.
He reads the text of his solicitation where it is stated that the guilty of his
client is not proven. To his mind, even the documents which were received from
the Lithuanian and the Polish banks witness that financial means from
Bialiatski’s account were used not for the needs of “Viasna”, not for his
personal ones.
The counsel also draws the attention of the judge to the absence of some
important elements in the case. In particular, he says that the source of some information
is a “DVD disk” received as a result of investigative action. However, the DVD
wasn’t attached to the case, as a result of which the defense had no
opportunity to study its content. Another peculiarity is information from “anonymous
sources”, which is contradictory and even senseless. (ERB)
He also points at the
presence of non-translated and improperly composed documents among the case
materials. Some of them don’t correspond to the Criminal Process Code. The
defense continues pointing at irregularities and violations in the case
materials. In particular, the documents that were received by the investigation
from Poland
are not sealed or signed by any bank officers. “Such documents cannot be taken
into consideration. They are not evidence,” said the lawyer. (ERB)
The prosecutor stated
that the documents which were requested by court from the Customs Committee
would be ready on Thursday. The judge announced a break in the court hearings
till 10 November.
