Minsk Savetski Borough Court Rejects Suit against Party of Communists of Belarus

Source: www.charter97.org

On 12 February the court of Savetski borough of Minsk ceased the lawsuit to leader of the Party of Communists Belarusian (PCB) Siarhei Kaliakin and the editorial office of the Tovarisch newspaper on protection of honor and dignity, as it was reported by a member of the central committee board of the PCB and the chief editor of Tovarisch Siarhei Vazniak.

The claimant was a former member of the central committee of the PCB Iury Vaskrasenski. He demanded a compensation of 150 million rubles for the moral damage from the defendant. The claim was caused by the statement from Siarhei Kaliakin’s report at the X party congress on 15 June 2006. When characterizing the defendant who recently managed to get enrolled in many oppositional organizations and now is a member of the Communist Party of Belarus (CPB), the leader of PCB called him a ‘political par venue’. Kaliakin’s report was later published by Tovarisch.

On 12 February the judge Maryna Fiodarava referred the characteristics given to the defendant to political polemics and ceased the corresponding lawsuit. ‘Kaliakin only characterized the political qualities of Iury Vaskrasenski. The court admitted the case to be political polemics which can not make subject of a case’, S.Vazniak said.

S.Kalyakin didn’t comment the decision of the court as, according to him, he considered any comment as incorrect until the decision came into force. There are 10 days at Iury Vaskrasenski’s disposal for appealing the court’s decision.