Brestskiy Kurier Wins Trial

According to RFE/RL

Maskouski court of Brest didn’t satisfy the suit of the resident of Brest Leanid Valabuyeu against the non-state newspaper Brestskiy Kurier, which was filed after the newspaper published a humoristic Poem about Volobuyev.

Leanid Valabuyeu took the opinion that the poem was devoted to him and therefore contained libel. That’s why he demanded the libeling information be disproved, the newspaper closed and a moral compensation of 2 million rubles be paid to him.

Later Mr. Valabuyeu refused from the demand to close the newspaper, but demanded 10 million rubles for compensation instead.

At the trial the editorial office of the newspaper proved that the poem was not an original artwork of the newspaper, but was reprinted from web sources, as a result of which the newspaper can’t be taken responsible for the information the poem contains. Besides, workers of the newspaper disproved the information that Valabuyeu is a very rare surname and therefore the poem must have been dedicated to him.