Minsk City Court dismisses Ales Byalyatski's appeal

The news was received from a letter the human rights activist sent to his wife.

Ales Byalyatski and his lawyer filed a supervisory appeal against the judgement of the Pershamaiksi district court of Minsk and the decision of the judicial panel of the Minsk City Court, Viasna human rights centre reports.

On January 24, the Minsk City Court upheld the judgement agianst Ales Byalyatski – 4.5-year prison tern and confiscation of property. The human rights activist was charged with “tax fraud on an especially large scale”. In real case, the human right defender spent money on human rights activity.

On March 29, the court of the Pershamaiski district of Minsk obliged the jailed human rights activist to pay over 140m rubles of penalty for failure to pay the debt on time. The proceeding was initiated by the tax office of the Pershamaiski district. Neither Byalyatski's colleagues nor his family did not know about the trial. Byalyatski sent the court decision to his wife Natallya by mail. The trial was held in absence of Byalyatski. The court decision reads: “The defendant is in a detention facility, failed to  appear at the trial, was  informed about the date and time of the trial in due form.” The claim to recover penalty from the human rights activist created an artificial legal obstacle. Any forms of reduction of a prison term – release on parole, amnesty, pardon – cannot be applied to Byalyatski. The appeals board of the Minsk City Court heard the appeal against this court decision, but ruled out to upheld the judgement.

A decision of the Minsk City Court will be appealed against in the Supreme Court.