Court Rejects Suits of Potential Editor of “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni”

On 19 February the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected the suit of Volha Kuniawskaya agaisnt the refusal of Hrodna Regional Executive Committee to register4 her private unitarian enterprise “Region-press”.

The plaintiff hasn’t received the motivation part of the verdict yet. Having pronounced the verdict, Judge Liudmila Kalesnikava said only that she would make “admonition” to Hrodna REC for having not mentioned the reasons for the refusal to register “Region-press” and the failure to timely answer Volha Kuniawskaya’s request.

The trial started on 13 January, then it was twice delayed. As a result, the Supreme Economic Court overtook this case.

We should mention that in march 2003 Volha Kuniawskaya, wife of the editor of “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni” Ramuald Ulan, applied to Hrodna REC for registration of private unitarian editorial enterprise “Region-press” and the officials refused to her without any explanations. Before that Hrodna Regional Economic Court liquidated the registration to the individual businessman Ramuald Ulan. Then the businessman stated that he was going to renew the edition of “Novaya Gazeta Smorgoni” through registration of a juridical body that will implement the functions of editorial board.

Press-service of the PA “Belarusian Association of Journalists”