Vitsebsky Kurjer M Served with Summons

Today the court of Kastrychnitski district of Vitsebsk is to consider the case of the local independent newspaper Vitsebsky Kurjer M. A Vitsebsk citizen Alyaksandr Danilau went to law with an application to protect his honour and business reputation.

According to the press-service of the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the action has been brought up for an article on April 14, 2006 Freedom Square for a limited circle, in which the author expressed the opinion that the decision of he city executive committee on giving land for a citizen A.Danilau for building a Youth Recreation Center was hasty and illegal: There had not been a public competition of projects or an auction between contractees. Everything has been done secretly and mysteriously.

The plaintiff believes that the author of the article deliberately emphasizes that A. Danilau had received a permission for the lot illegally, using family relations and friendship with the chairman of the head of the city executive committee. St. Nicolas cathedral church was situated at that lot previously.

A. Danilau maintains that information was untrue, and the tone of the article and of the Scandal column smears his honour and business reputation. He demands to refute the information, and pay 30 million rubles moral damages to him.
Source: www.charter97.org