Aleh Vouchak appeals against the verdict on his lawsuit to ‘SB-Belarus Segodnia’

On 1 June the human rights defender Aleh Vouchak filed a cassation complaint to the college board on civil cases of Savetski district court of Minsk to appeal against the verdict, issued on 15 May on his lawsuit against the newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya on protection of honor, dignity and business reputation and compensation of the moral harm.

On 15 May Savetski district court of Minsk, presided by the judge Eduard Yakubouski considered the civil case on the lawsuit of Aleh Vouchak against the newspaper of the presidential administration Sovetskaya Belorussiya and turned it down. The court also ruled that the plaintiff was to pay 105 000 rubles of court fee and compensate the court expenses – 2 410 rubles (107 410 rubles in total, about $36).

‘I consider the court verdict groundless and unlawful for the following reasons. In my lawsuit against the newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya of 31 March 2009 I stated that on 6 March 2009 the newspaper Sovetskaya Belorussiya published the article We’ve got many wonders, every geezer is a Beethoven (further referred to as ‘the article’) in which it disseminated false information about me and the human rights defender Yana Paliakova, who later committed suicide. The author of the article took the nick-name Xenophont Superfosfatov. The article presented the information that did not correspond to the reality that I find to be besmearing my honor, dignity as a man and a lawyer,’ reads the complaint.

Aleh Vouchak demands from the newspaper 70 million rubles in moral damages. The trial that took place on 14 May and was lead by the judge Eduard Yakubouski did not establish the real person who hid behind the abovementioned nick. In his complaint the human rights defender asks to completely reverse the court ruling and consider the case to the point.