Minsk Tsentralny Borough Court Rejects Sviatlana Zavadskaia’s Suit Concerning Her Beating

On 11 November Minsk Tsentralny Borough Court considered the suit of Sviatlana Zavadskaia, wife of the missing cameraman of the ORT Russian TV channel Dzmitry Zavadski against the refusal to bring a criminal case against the riot policeman Iury Davidovich, who beat her during the action held on 7 July 2005 in Kastrychnitskaia Square in Minsk to remind people about the missing opposition activists. At the beginning of the trial the judge Valiery Iesman didn’t allow the human rights activist Alieh Hulak to defend Sviatlana Zavadskaia’s interests. Then the court watched the videotape of the events. However, according to Sviatlana Zavadskaia, the tape was edited:
-- The tape was partially erased. In the earlier version the policeman’s face after he hit me could be clearly seen. There wasn’t any blood, bruises and scratches on his face that could witness it was a fight between us. However, instead of this part of the tape there appeared the recording of another ORT program. The procurator said that this very tape was passed to the court by ORT. However, representatives of Belarusian ORT bureau were present at the trial. They confirmed the tape didn’t contain the recording of another program when they passed it to the procurator’s office. The tape was 35 minutes long, only two-minute fragment was shown at the trial. That’s why I think the materials of the procurator’s check-up were falsified.

Having studied other documents the judge rejected Sviatlana Zavadskaia’s suit against the procurator’s office. Sviatlana Zavadskaia disagrees with this verdict and is going to apply to Minsk City Court.