Justice Belarusian style: Defendant’s Land Cruiser worth $40 thousand was sold before the verdict

(updated – 16:30) Officers of the court sold the defendant’s expensive off-roader without waiting for court’s decision.

The charter97.org web-site learned about that from an employee of a Minsk sporting organization Vital Stanievich.

“In 2007 I was arrested, and in 2009 convicted on criminal charges. I spent three and a half years behind bars, and then the Supreme Court cancelled the verdict and sent the case for re-consideration. This took place in January 2011. A new court’s proceeding started, which lasted for a year. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus, no sanctions were supposed to be applied to me while the previous verdict was cancelled. This means that no one had the right to touch my property, which was under arrest, and it was supposed to be stored while the second proceeding was taking place”, - he pointed out.

Vital emphasized that his car was sold without waiting for the verdict to be passed.

“As of the current moment the Police Department for Economic Crimes has established that it was sold with violations: the chamber of commerce did not provide an evaluation. It means that they sold it silently. Imagine, a Toyota Land Cruiser of 2004 was sold for a little over 5 thousand (52 million roubles) to some unknown Russian”, - the reader added.

The man explained that by the law the amount of the payments received, should be paid back from the budget.

“This means that the authorities are ready to pay me back these 52 million. But a licensed organization in 2012 evaluated my car to be worth of $40.130 (330 million roubles). The question arises: where will the additional costs come from? The authorities admit that criminal charges should be brought against the officers of the court, who sold the car, but to me they say I should understand that those were not the ones, who made the decision. And I tell them to look for those, who did. In the end this drag has been going on for two years: from Prosecutor General’s office they sent me to Minsk Prosecutor’s office, Minsk Prosecutor’s office – to the District Prosecutor’s office, which reports that it is working and cannot get a response from Russia, because the car was sold to a Russian”, - Vital concluded with indignation.