Yauhen Basareuski: "the court minutes were evidently fabricated"

The Zhlobin member of the Belarusian Leftist Party "Fair World" Yauhen Basareuski, sentenced to three years of imprisonment by the Zhlobin District Court for alleged abused of office powers, received a copy of the minutes of the court sitting.

Mr. Basareuski states that there is a huge number of contradictions and defects in the minutes, unfavorable for the 66-year-old activist.

"I faced facts that contradict my case almost on each page of the minutes," says Yauhen Basareuski. "For instance, during the investigation I repeatedly stated that I had addressed the Zhlobin District Executive Committee in connection without our situation, where is in the minutes it is stated that I didn't appeal to it. Or take, for instance, words of a witness, the head of the financial department of the executive committee: as he said at the trial, no harm was inflicted to the state, there was just non-payment of financial means due to the unprofitableness of our enterprise. These words weren't included in this document. My last plea was not fully reflected in the minutes either. That's why this document has evidently been fabricated in order to prove my guilt.

On Monday Yauhen Basareuski meets with his counsel in order to decided how this documents can be attached to the cassation appeal, pending at the Homel Region Court.

Bear in mind that on 7 December 2012 the civil and political activsit Yauhen Basareuski was sentenced to 3 years with the determent of the sentence.

The court proceedings against Mr. Basareuski started back in 2010, when he tried to get nominated as a candidate from the "Fair World" at the election to local Soviets. On the eve of the election the State Control Committee conducted the communal assets bureau, headed by Basareuski in 2004-2009, and found that the enterprise had allegedly evaded from the payment of 50% of the rent tax, by which a loss of more than 180 million rubles was inflicted to the state. Soon a criminal case was brought against Mr. Basareuski and the accountant of the enterprise Valiantsina Kastsiukevich. Thought the check-up of the Ministry of Justice found no violations in Basareuski and Kastsiukevich's actions, the judge Inna Sharshniova issued verdicts of guilty to the both of them.