Supreme Court upholds refusing court proceedings in Belarusian
Baranavichy human
rights defender Siarhei Housha received yesterday a letter signed by first
deputy chairman of the Supreme Court of Belarus A. Fedartsou,
which says that there are no grounds for disciplinary proceedings against Judge
Petryu of the Court of Baranavichy District and the City of Baranavichy, as
well as the chairman of the Court M.A.
Kmita. The
high official argues that "the law does not provide for the obligation of administering
justice in the Belarusian language."
Earlier,
we reported that for over 5 months the human rights defender had urged the
Court of Baranavichy to issue its rulings of 04.09.2012, 13.09.2012 and
19.10.2012 (order
to initiate enforcement proceedings) in the Belarusian language. However, Judges Petryu and Kmita kept sending Siarhei
Housha all the court papers in Russian, despite the fact that he was writing
and verbally urged the judges to send letters in Belarusian.
“We
have a law "On Appeals by the Citizens and Legal Persons" of 18 July
2011. Par. 1 of Art. 18
clearly says that written answers to the written complaints of citizens shall
be made in the same language. However,
Baranavichy Judges and the officials of the Supreme Court do not seem to want
to know the law and keep violating it again and again,” said Siarhei Housha.
The
human rights defender is going to continue his fight for proceedings in the
Belarusian language.
