Supervisory appeal of human rights activist Siarhei Housha turned down

Head of the Brest Regional Court Tamara Suchok dismissed the supervisory complaint of human rights activist Siarhei Housha concerning the ban on a picket devoted to Human Rights Day.

Earlier, the Baranavičy city and district court and the judicial board on civil cases of the Brest regional court found the actions of the Baranavičy city executive committee to ban picketing legal. Siarhei Housha asked the chairperson of the regional court to reverse these verdicts, as well as the decision of the Baranavičy city executive committee to ban picketing on December 10, 2014, which he deems illegal.

“I am very disappointed with the decision of the chair of the regional court Tamara Suchok. She again "did not notice" that the law on mass events was violated not by the event organizers, but by Baranavičy city executive committee, who hadn't explained the reasons for banning the picket and missed the legal terms for answering. I am surprised that the judge also ignored my explanations on the illegality of the requirements on the part of the executive committee of the applicants regarding the conclusion of service contracts with the police for securing the public order during the mass events, which violates the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of March 5, 2012 № 207. The explanations of the head of the regional court that we didn't specify the measures related to health care and cleaning of the territory after the event, look unreasonable, too,” commented Siarhei Housha.

The human rights activist is convinced that the situation around the ban of picket on Human Rights Day and the decisions of the courts of two instances do look absurd, as it was said in the picket application that the copies of the service contracts with the polyclinics and the communal utilities were attached to it, as well as the written commitments of the organizers to secure the public order during the event. However, according to Mr. Housha, municipal and regional judges somehow "don't notice" these documents and support the illegal decisions in order to maintain the "esprit de corps".

Siarhei Housha disagrees with the decision of the Chair of the Brest Regional Court and intends to appeal to the Supreme Court.