Court Turns Down ZUBR Activist’s Appeal Against Pavel Yakubovich :: Charter'97 :: News

Judge of the Sovietsky district of Minsk Fedorova refused to satisfy the lawsuit, filed by ZUBR activist Aleksei Shydlovsky against the newspaper “Sovietskaya Belorussiya” and its editor-in-chief Pavel Yakubovich.

On May 8 the newspaper published the article by Yakubovich, in which he wrote that ZUBR movement’s coordinator, former political prisoner Aleksei Shydlovsky served his term in jail for failure to pay alimonies to his ex-wife. Aleksei Shydlovsky, who had never been married, decided to protest the false data in court. He sued the newspaper and its editor, demanding moral compensation of 6mln rubles from Yakubovich and same size reimbursement from the newspaper.
The defendants from the very beginning sought to win time. For a month and a half the “Sovietskaya Belorussiya” editor found various excuses in order not to show up at the trial, after which he finally left for a three months vacation.
Judge Fedorova went even further. She said that she would not oblige the newspaper to pay compensation at all not even to publish refutation on its pages. She referred to the fact that Shydlovsky was convicted under the Penal Code provisions and is therefore supposed to be an amoral person.
“I harbored no illusions concerning the financial compensation possibility, resting pretty assured that the court will necessarily make the newspaper publish refutation. The judicial decision came as a real shock to me,” – commented the frustrated plaintiff on the court’s final ruling.