On May 17 in Mogilev at the entrance to the Palace of culture of the artificial tissues manufacture plant, there continues his hunger-strike a resident of the Zimnitsa village of Mogilev district Pavel Krushkin. By so doing he protests against the infringement on his right for the protection of legal interests. At this point, none of the officials came out to talk to him, though he collected 30 signatures in his favor.

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Recently the activities of the United Civil Party and its leadership came into the spotlight of attention of numerous state structures and services. KGB, procuracy, the Ministry of justice and tax inspection are the ones which engage in the campaign, unleashed by the authorities against UCP and its leaders.

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Mogilev regional economic court denied entrepreneur and editor of the Krichev non-state newspaper “Volny Gorad” Sergei Nerovny a right to appeal against the district committee actions. Nerovny sought to argue in court against the district administration’s refusal to coordinate the editorial board’s legal address.

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IREX-Promedia and Internews Network are crossed out of the list of assistance programs, approved by the government of Belarus. Moreover, now the assistance, rendered to the independent mass media, must get registered in the humanitarian aid department.

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The court of the Moskovsky district of Minsk brought editor-in-chief of the satirical newspaper “Navinky” Pavel Konovalchik to administrative accountability. The man is accused of disseminating false testimonies, which defame honor and dignity of the Belarusian incumbent.

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For the past three days the official Minsk circles have been discussing the speech of the Russian president. The fact that Vladimir Putin mentioned not a single word about his strategic partner and the “union state” construction plans, produced a chilling effect on Belarus. As proof of the growing fears among the official Minsk came the unanimous decision of the three Belarusian TV channels not to televise Putin’s discourse. Without an order from above such a behavior of the Belarusian TV officials with regard for the brotherly neighbor would be absolutely unimaginable.

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Sergei Skrebets learnt about the institution of criminal proceedings against him from the letter of a senior procuracy detective Vyacheslav Terekhovich, reports Radio Svaboda. The detective reported that the “deputy” is suspected of extorting credits and organizing a criminal band. So far, they haven’t summoned him to the interrogations, but simply proposed to visit procuracy and take a copy of the court action’s institution.

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Court bailiffs determined to force famous Vitebsk opposition activist Vladimir Pleschenko to clear off his “indebtedness” before the state all at once. For his part in all last years’ actions the man was fined overall 8mln rubles ($4thsd). They even put him on police search list but Vladimir never went into hiding. He learnt about the “debt” at another detention at the unsanctioned picket in central Vitebsk. The law-enforcers, detaining him, threatened that he wouldn’t be able to leave the country until he pays off the fine. Vladimir wondered why they threaten him like that for he never intended to flee anywhere.

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A statement of protest against possible liquidation of the public association “Ratusha” was submitted today by the Grodno organization Belarusian Association of Journalists into the regional court and the department of information of the Grodno regional committee. If you remember, the court case on the liquidation of “Ratusha” was opened by the regional justice department. The pretext for instituting the lawsuit was the organization’s usage of the polygraph machine without a concomitant permit.

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On May 19 Minsk was visited by the delegates from the Organization for democratic institutes and human rights of OSCE. The group is chaired by the project coordinator Eva Chelinska. The specialists intend to stay in Belarus for two days. As said by deputy head of the Minsk OSCE office Vagran Abadjan, their goal is to discuss programs and projects, due to be carried out in Belarus. The programs touch upon the reinforcement of civil society and legal issues.

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Moldavian Defense Minister, brigade general Viktor Gaichuk will pay an official visit to Belarus on May 21-22. “The Minister’s visit’s agenda includes meetings with representatives of the military agency of Belarus, in course of which the sides will concentrate on various aspects of the bilateral cooperation in the military sphere and the perspectives of its enlargement,” – reports the Moldavian Defense Ministry’s press-service.

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The Days of the Belarusian culture in Iran will open on May 26, “Interfax” was told on Monday by the assistant of the Belarusian Minister of culture Vladimir Vecher. According to him, the issue of organizing Belarusian cultural days in Iran was raised at the meeting between the Belarusian Minister of culture Leonid Gulyako and Iranian plenipotentiary ambassador Mohammad Hashemi Golpaegani in Minsk.

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Deputy head of BPF Yuri Khodyko was sentenced to 15 days of arrest in his absence. Judge Ruslan Kazadaev forwarded the court’s ruling to police in order to carry out the verdict. Now the policemen must locate Yuri Khodyko and deliver him to the Okrestina confinement center. They blamed the elderly man over organizing the People’s March “For Better Life!”, held in Minsk on March 12.

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