Supreme Court turned down cassation complaint against non-registration of ‘Brestskaya Viasna’

On 3 September the Supreme Court of Belarus considered cassation complaint against the non-registration of the civil association Brestskaya Viasna by the Ministry of Justice. As said by a founder of the organization Uladzimir Vialichkin, ‘the trial ended up predictably. Nobody had any illusions about it. That’s why when the pronounced the verdict: ‘The verdict of Brest oblast court is to be left without changes and the complaint is to be turned down’, for is it witnessed only that we have exhausted the means of struggle for our civil rights on the national level and have only the possibility of applying to the UN Human Rights Committee left to us.’

Mr. Vialichkin agreed to answer some questions of our correspondent.

- Recently we have learned that the justice department of Brest oblast executive committee, athwart its on ruling on registration denial, dated 27 August, suddenly gave you some time to correct the shortcomings that were found in your documents. What is the reason for such show of reverence to you, and what is the future perspective?

- I am convinced that the officials who have taken the decision on the registration denial understand that it was not right. (…) There’s an appropriate presidential decree and corresponding articles of international laws according to which the state must act to the benefit of its citizens. In this case the 17 citizens who founded the human rights organization Breststkaya Viasna were deprived of the right to association. Thus, this determent cannot be considered as a relaxation of restrictions. During the trial I understood some things. First of all, I occasionally found out that immediately after the trial our opponent, who represented the main bureau of Brest oblast executive committee, got a seat at the Ministry of Justice.

Secondly, I got convinced, that a determent does not guarantee the registration for an organization. They have two times managed to make the landlord refuse from the guarantee letter for providing the legal address to us. I think that now they will study our documents even more attentively and I am afraid for the fate of the organization founders. I don’t think they will continue the old practice of pressurizing the landlords, as in this case it is the editorial board of Brestski Kuryier newspaper. Instead, they can personally pressurize any of the founders of the organization.’