Activist of the antinuclear campaign is waiting for 4 months for his belongings to be returned

A tribunal was held in Oshmyany to hear complaints of civil activist and human rights defender Mikalai Ulasevich.

The complaint was filed against the unlawful actions of Oshmyany regional customs. Consideration of the complaint was so formal that it took only 15 minutes. Ulasevich was denied in satisfaction of the appeal, says Human Rights Center "Viasna".

Representative of Oshmyany customs, who was on the court, argued that Ulasevich, allegedly, missed procedural deadlines for filing a complaint, citing paragraph 7 of the Article 264 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Republic of Belarus. Mikalai Ulasevich strongly disagrees, as previously he passed two court appeals, and after the second one he has filed a complaint to the court in the corresponding period. The court decided that in this instance Ulasevich had to file the complaint within one month from the time of the offense, that is, from April 10 of this year, when personal belongings were taken from the activist. The Court pointed out that in this case, in accordance with Article 33 of the Customs Code, the court appeal is optional, that is why procedural deadlines come from the moment of violation, and not from the time of the response to a non-judicial complaint.

Mikalai Ulasevich intends to appeal against the decision of Oshmyany court in cassation order. One should add that unfoundedly confiscated personal belongings of the activist so far were not returned by the regional customs of Oshmyany.

Recall, on April 10, an activist of the anti-nuclear campaign from Ostrovets district was stopped at the border on the ground that he was driving his own car not on the eighth day, as permitted, but on the seventh.

Usually in such cases, border guards simply send people back. But Mikalai Ulasevich were taken on personal control and deprived of personal belongings. Only three hours later he was able to return.

According to Ulasevich, he have lost the recorder, the CD "Back to the Future", the disc of Belarusian bards, 80 stickers "Fukushima" and one "born not to crawl", a textbook "Chernobyl lessons" and an alternative report on the impact of the future Ostrovets  NPP on the environment.

Ulasevich says that he was traveling to Lithuania for a meeting with Lithuanian colleagues, who also oppose the construction of the nuclear power plant in Ostrovets.