Ales Bialiatski to be given new charges on 16 November
On 10 November the trial
of Ales Bialiatski, Chairman of the Human
Rights Center
“Viasna”, continued at the Pershamaiski District Court of Minsk.
10.00 a.m. The court received documents requested from the Border Control
Committee and the tax inspection on Bialiatski’s solicitation and will consider
them today.
10.05 The trial opened with the prosecutor’s reading of a letter from the
Pershamaiski District Tax Inspection, the copies of additional assets and
income declarations of Bialiatski and acts of verification of his income and
expenditures.
10.20 Security guards refused to let Valery Kavaleuski, Pavel Levinau, Zmitser
Salauyou and Vintsiuk Viachorka in the court hall. They were admitted to the
trial only after addressing the Chairman of the Maskouski District Court of
Minsk.
10.40 The judge stated that the case materials in foreign languages were
translated. The counsel found some mistakes in the translation. For instance,
“public reception rooms of “Viasna”” was translated as “public reception room”.
The translated documents witness that international human rights organizations
transferred money to Bialiatski’s account for the organization of the work of
public reception rooms and election monitoring. (RFE/RL)
10.50 Bialiatski explains that in 2009-2009 he used to be registered by the
custom’s office while crossing the border. He says that the documents that were
presented by the Customs Committee are incomplete. “These documents are at my
house, but my wife cannot find them. Release me under a written undertaking not
to leave, and I will bring them,” says Bialiatski. (RFE/RL)
11.10 The prosecutor says that yesterday the investigation received materials
from the website of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”. “The Human Rights Center
“Viasna” is a non-state human rights organization, which was founded in 1996,
during mass actions of protest of the democratic opposition in Belarus, and
rendered aid to the arrested and their families.” The prosecutor asks whether
this information is true, and Bialiatski says: “Yes, it’s true in general”.
11.20 The prosecutor asked Bialiatski, which kind of “Viasna’s” activities
didn’t fall under the requirements of the presidential decree which provided
uninhibited use of financial aid from the abroad. “It’s difficult to say”,
answered the human rights defender. The prosecutor also asked about the sum of
Sakharov’s prize received by Bialiatski, but was answered that there was no
money, just a diploma.
The prosecutor also read the statement of the Ministry of Justice of Lithuania, where it expressed regret about
passing information about Bialiatski’s accounts to Belarus. This information was
received from “Viasna’s” website as well.
12.38 The prosecutor solicited
for the postponement of hearings to 16 November. He stated that new charges, considerably
differing from the old ones, would be presented to Bialiatski by that time.
