Baranavichy: trial on the prohibition of Milavidy feast postponed to 15 July

On 12 July the hearings on the appeal of an activist of the civic campaign "Tell the Truth" Viachaslau Bolbat against the bans on the Milavidy fest in the memory of insurgents of 1863, issued by the Baranavichy District Executive Committee on 3 and 20 May, took place at the Baranavichy District and City Court.

The case was considered by Judge Vera Uhlik.

In his speech, Viachaslau Bolbat noted that the organizers of the cultural festival fulfilled all the requirements of the Law "On Mass Events in the Republic of Belarus." He asked the court to invalidate the decision of the executive committee of 20 May 2013 concerning the prohibition of the Milavidy festifal on 9 June.

The head of the legal department of the Baranavichy District Executive Committee Volha Firyan and the deputy head of the department of ideological work, culture and youth affairs Dzmitry Varvashenia stated, that the organizers were prohibited to hold the event on 2 June, as the cultural department executive committee planned to hold its own event dedicated 150 th anniversary of the Battle of Milavidskay 1863 at the same time in the same place. However, the event wasn't held and the state-owned newspaper "Nash Krai" wrote nothing about it. The website of the executive committee didn't provide any information about the event either.

Then the representatives of the Baranavichy District Executive Committee noted that on 9 June Milavidy festival was banned because the applicants had not signed new contracts with the district police, health center and housing utilities and did not meet other requirements of Art. 5 of the Law "On Mass Events in the Republic of Belarus."

"This is a nonsense. Why sign new contract when we just asked to change the date of the event to 9 June", said Viachalsua Bolbat.

The final sitting on the case will start at 9 a.m. on 15 July.