Brest Regional Court dismisses appeal by Baranavichy activist

On August 27, Judge Natallia Surma of the Brest Regional Court dismissed the cassation appeal lodged by activist Mikalai Charnavus against an earlier ruling by the district court of Baranavichy of July 21, which found the individual entrepreneur guilty of violating Article 23.34, Part 3 of the Administrative Code – organization and holding an unauthorized meeting at the local market on July 1.

“Still, I hoped that the Regional Court would be unbiased in addressing my administrative case. But can we talk of an unbiased approach when the trial took only a few minutes. The Regional Court, by the way, as well as the court of first instance, ignored the fact that I was not given an opportunity to get acquainted with the administrative offense report. The Court did not even pay attention to the fact that more than one hundred entrepreneurs said that they themselves organized a rally on July 1, and that none of the three witnesses mentioned in the report confirmed that it was me who was the organizer of the unauthorized event. Therefore, I strongly disagree with the decision of the Regional Court and will appeal to higher judicial authorities in the search for truth and justice,” said Mikalai Charnavus.