Consideration of Aliaxiei Shydlouski’s Cassation Complaint
On December 23 there was considered the cassation complaint of Aliaxiei Shydlouski against the verdict of Miensk Savietski borough court on his suit against the State newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussiya” and its editor-in-chief Paviel Iakubovich.
On October 17 Miensk Savietski borough court turned down a suit against state-owned newspaper “Sovetskaya Belorussia” and its editor-in-chief Paviel Iakubovich. On 8 May 2002 the newspaper informed its readers that Aliaxiei Shydlouski had left his wife with a kid, when he was twenty. The newspaper said, he was convicted to imprisonment for alimony evasion. However, Shydlouski has never been married and has never had children. He was convicted for political graffiti.
The college board of Miensk city court on civic cases listened to opinions of the plaintiff and his representative, lawyer of PA HRC “Viasna” Valiantsin Stefanovich and turned the complained down, leaving decision of Miensk Savietski borough court unchanged: he newspaper information wasn’t true, but made no harm to honor and dignity of Aliaxiei Shydlouski as he had spent a term in prison before the publication.
A. Shydlouski’s representative Valiantsien Stefanovich said: “We referred to norms of the Criminal-process code in our cassation complaint. The verdict of Soviet borough court contained no motivation, didn’t give any evaluation to the collected evidence and the witnesses’ testimonies. So, we thought that court didn’t made all-round consideration of the evidence, didn’t check it. That’s why we decided that the court verdict was illegal and was to be asset aside. However, this complaint wasn’t satisfied. In the end I said I was surprised with this court decision. Now one can write anything about people who were criminally punished. I drew an example… If a female activist of a political party is administratively punished for participation in a meeting, they can write that she was drawn for administrative responsibility for prostitution, can’t they?”
