“Pahonya’s” Case Put Off Till September 5 :: Charter'97 :: News

The session of the Supreme Economic court started considering the lawsuit, lodged by the regional Public Prosecutor’s Office over the liquidation of the newspaper “Pahonya” as a legal entity. Judge Zhandarev postpones the session for October 5, as the Public Prosecutor’s Office had not submitted the documents of additional inspection to the newspaper.

As Radio Svaboda informs, in the beginning of the sitting Lilia Bogdan, representative of the Information Ministry, withdrew a suit of her institution. However the deputy Public Prosecutor of Gomel region Evgeniy Trutko said that it is doubtful that his institution would do the same.

Recently several issues of the newspaper were arrested and all the equipment confiscated. The editor-in-chief Nikolai Markevich says that this facts prove that the authorities want to shut down the weekly.

In the present state of affairs, Markevich believes, that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is just a pawn in the arms of the authorities. “The Public Prosecutor’s Office just decided to perform a political order, forgetting about the law. There are no legal grounds to shut down the newspaper, and if the judge abide by the law, the weekly will be closed under no circumstances”.

You must remember that the editor is facing legal action for slandering the president. The authorities considered libelous the information about the existence of death squads in Belarus. The author of the article claimed that the person, who’s suspected of running these squads has no right to nominate himself for another presidency.