Heorhi Stankevich demands that court drops his case

Heorhi Stankevich, editor of the small-circulation newspaper “Kryvinka”, distributed in the Beshankovichy district, is charged with violation of the distribution rules. He was to have been tried for it on 4 January. However, Heorhi didn't manage to come due to an illness.

Instead, he filed an appeal, in which he states that he didn't consider himself a delinquent.

Mr. Stankevich had been detained on 5 November, allegedly after a call of two resident of Beshankovich to the local police department. On 5 December the Beshankovichy District Court found that the violation report had been composed in the wrong way and returned it to the police.

The police, in their turn, committed a number of process violations. In particular, on 12 December Mr. Stankevich tried to appeal the violation report, but didn't receive any answer from the head of the Beshankovichy District Police Department. On 19 December he was questioned at the DPD, but his motion for holding an expertise concerning the compatibility of the provisions of the Law “On Mass Media” concerning the distribution of unregistered editions with the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus wasn't granted, as well as the motion for inviting a qualified interpreter, as Heorhi Stankevich speaks Belarusian.

Mr. Stankevich also emphasizes that he wasn't submitted to the police department even once during the whole period of investigation, though he expressed his wish to give testimony. Moreover, he wasn't informed about the passing of his case to the court, which is a violation of the legal norms.

That's why he demands that he case be dropped and the officials guilty of violating the Process-Executive Code of Administrative Offenses be punished.