Journalist Tamara Shchapiotkina challenges court verdict

Independent journalist T. Shchapiotkina has filed an appeal to the Brest Regional Court against the verdict of the court of Leninski district of Brest, according to which she had been fined 40 basic units. In the appeal, the journalist asks to cancel the verdict and send the case for retrial.

The journalist considers the court's verdict illegal. According to her, during the hearing her right to fair trial was violated: there was no assessment of evidence and the arguments of her three witnesses were ignored. The judge didn't accept her proposal to view the website of the Belarusian “Radio Racyja” in order to verify the absence of the interview with the road policeman of the Brest District Police Department Siarhei Nelipovich she had allegedly taken on January 8.

The court also gave no assessment of the contradictions in the testimony of Mr. Nelipovich who had written in the violation report that he had first seen T. Shchapiotkina on January 8, whereas at court he stated he had seen her earlier.

Let us remind that on April 27 T. Shchapiotkina was sentenced to a fine under Article 22.9, “illegal manufacture of media products”.