Vitsebsk Regional Court dismisses Antanina Pivanos' complaint

The pensioner Antanina Pivanos is the author of an embroidery with the words "Our Father," who received an administrative punishment for coming to the center of Vitsebsk with this embroidery in 2008.

After applying to the UN Human Rights Committee she received a letter with the Committee's decision, according to which the Belarusian side was to restore the violated rights of Mrs. Pivanos, pay her compensation for the confiscated property and return the amount of the fine, to which she had been sentenced illegally.

Antanina Pivanos is trying to make the authorities implement the decision of the UN Human Rights Committee. At first she applied to the Chyhunachny District Court of Vitsebsk, but on 17 May the court rejected her appeal. The recent appeal to the Vitsebsk Regional Court didn't bring any results either: the verdict of the Chyhunachny District Court was left unchanged.

Antanina Pivanos intends to appeal the verdict to the higher court instances, as she did earlier, when the case concerned the confiscated embroidery and the fine. If she doesn't succeed in the enforcement of the Committee's decision, she will most probably apply to the UN again to appeal the non-implementation of its decisions by the Belarusian authorities.

The incident with the embroidered prayer, with which, in fact, it all started, occurred in Vitebsk on 25 March 2008. Antanina Pivanos decided to present her embroidery to the Vitsebsk oppositionist Barys Khamaida on the Freedom Day. She brought the embroidery (which took several months of work) to the so-called Blue House where Mr. Khamaida distributed the independent press, and unfurled it there. The police considered it as demonstration of a poster of an opposition content. As a result, Antanina Pivanos was punished with a fine for alleged participation in an unauthorized picket, and the embroidery was confiscated from her.