Mahiliou Regional Court dismissed the case against the newspaper “Volny Horad”

On 4 December in Mahiliou the judicial board on civil cases of the Mahiliou Regional Court considered the appeal of the publisher of the newspaper "Volny Horad" Uladzimir Kudrautsau.

In his appeal against the verdict of the Krychau District Court of 22 October 2013 on the lawsuit of the state enterprise "Cherykau PMK-280" on the protection of business reputation the publisher of "Volny Horad" Uldadzimir Kudrautsau asked the court to abolish the verdict and terminate the proceedings, to exact 1500,000 rubles in his favor from the plaintiff and make a private remark to the judge of the Krychau District Court A. Kachanava for the lack prafesinalizm.

Having considered the complaint, the judicial board on civil cases of the Mahiliou Regional Court reversed the verdict of the Krychau District Court and dismissed the case.

"We managed to win because we fought until the end,” says the editor of the newspaper "Volny Horad" Siarhei Niarouny. “We We consulted with human rights defenders and found a formal reason for the abolishment of the court verdict. The judicial board of the Mahiliou Regional Court had to agree with our arguments. Though the counsel of PMK-280 Katsiaryna Hadunova and the enterprise's lawyer attended the trial, it didn't help them. Our arguments proved to be more convincing.

I would also like to give a special thanks to the human rights defenders Barys Bukhel, who helped us to achieve a fair verdict."

"In this case we are fully satisfied", says Barys Bukhel. “We managed to prove that we are right. The judges of the Mahiliou Regional Court consulted one another for a long time, but then fully agreed with our arguments. Now all our efforts will be focused on the cancellation of the previous verdict of the Krychau District Court (issued by Judge Aliaksandr Kurylin) on a lawsuit of the Cherykau PMK- 280, and returning the court expenses to the journalists of “Volny Horad”,” says Mr. Bukhel.

According to the human rights activist, the supervisory appeal of the publisher o “Volny Horad” against the verdict of the Krychau District Court of 17 June 2013 on the lawsuit of the Cherykau PMK-280 on the protection of the business reputation, filed to the chairman of the Mahiliou Regional Court, shall be considered until 21 December. Barys Bukhel hopes that this ruling of the Krychau District Court will be overturned and the proceedings will be terminated.

We should remind that earlier the human rights defender Barys Bukhel familiarized with the relevant documents and found that the judges of the Krychau District Court and the Mahiliou Regional Court had no right to consider the lawsuits of the Cherykau PMK-280 to the newspaper “Volny Horad” on the protection of business reputation, the defendant in which was its founder, Uladzimir Kudrautsau.

Barys Bukhel noted that the disputes between a legal entity and an individual, which are connected with the protection of business reputation in the field of entrepreneurial and other economic activities should be considered only by the economic court.

According to Mr. Bukhel, it is stated in Article 47 of the Economic Procedure Code and in paragraph 6 of the Ruling of the plenum of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Belarus No. 16 dated 16 April 2005.

The human rights defender stated that the Krychau District Court had no right to commence the lawsuits by the Cherykau PMK- 280, but was to have explained to the plaintiffs that they needed to file their lawsuit to the economic court. The validity of his conclusions was confirmed by the Judicial board on civil cases of the Mahiliou Regional Court.