The human rights activist Andrei Bondarenko is suing with BT

A preliminary session was held today on the First Court of Minsk.

Bandarenka accuses BT of insult of his honour and dignity. The reason for this is the TV-report in the program "In center of attention", shown by the TV-Channel "Belarus 1" on December 11, 2011. In particular, the TV-journalists claimed that Bandarenka "was mentioned in a case on swindling in major scope" and that he allegedly had a criminal nickname "Deputy".

Let us remind you, Bandarenka really was convicted but considered innocent afterwards. The sentence was cancelled due to the absence of corpus delicti.

Representative of BT Vital Karplyuk appeared at the hearing on June 7 with a TV-report dedicated to Bandarenka. However, the ex-political prisoner said it was an edited version of the initial report.

The court resolved to hold the next hearing on June 21. The parties are supposed to present the full version of the report then.

Besides, the representative of the TV-Channel informed that the author of the report, someone called Martynenka, did not work for BT anymore.