Judge Alena Siamak evades consideration of appeal by Valiantsin Stefanovich
Valiantsin Stefanovich, deputy chair of the Human Rights Center "Viasna". Photo by svaboda.org.
It has been three months now since Valiantsin Stefanovich, deputy chair of the Human Rights Center “Viasna”, urged Minsk Tsentralny District Court to appoint the date for the consideration of his appeal against illegal actions by the Ministry of Defense, who imposed foreign travel restrictions on the human rights defender.
On 26 June, the human rights defender phoned the Court’s administrative office just to learn that Judge Alena Siamak, who previously postponed the hearing owing “to pressing engagements”, would be on holiday until 13 July.
Valiantsin Stefanovich says he is going to leave a message in the Court’s book of complaints, as Par. 1 Art. 337 of the Code of Civil Procedures requires the court to consider civil cases within a month following the submission of a lawsuit.
The Citizenship and Migration Department of the Interior Ministry has previously admitted its fault of enrolling the human rights defender on the list of foreign travel restrictions, referring to a “maintenance failure”. However, Valiantsin Stefanovich is still unable to leave Belarus, until the data base check is completed.
