A judge of the Tsentralny District Court in Minsk on Friday imposed a $220 fine on Nikolai Astreiko, a coordinator of a group of independent observers that monitored last year’s referendum and parliamentary elections. The activist was found guilty of acting on behalf of an unregistered organization under Part 10 of the Administrative Offenses Code’s Article 167.
Aleksandr Lukashenko, by his Friday’s edict, instituted a post of authorized presidential representative to the National Assembly. An official appointed presidential representative to the legislature should “ensure cooperation between the head of state and the parliament’s chambers, attend and speak at their sittings, clarify the president’s stance on various matters discussed by the chambers, as well as perform other functions on the instructions of the president,” the Belarusian leader’s press office said.
The Independent Institute for Social, Economic and Political Studies (IISEPS) has filed a suit with the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate an official warning issued by the Ministry of Justice last year.
A total of 20,000 market vendors walked off the job on Thursday, bringing trade to a standstill at 63 markets across the country, the Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs reported.
A prominent opposition activist has been charged with begging after attempting to raise private donations for what she called ‘an orange revolution’ in Belarus.
Supreme court sentenced ex-chairman of Belarusian television to 11 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. He will service the sentence in colony of medium security. The trial was held behind the closed doors. Many Lukashenka’s companions found theirselfesbehind the bars but this sentence is the most cruel.
Iranian Ambassador Abdolhamid Fekri said his country counts on Belarus’ support in the bitter confrontation with the United States over its nuclear program. “We always back each other and will continue doing it in future,” the diplomat told reporters in Minsk on Thursday. The ambassador stressed that he expects Belarus’ National Assembly and the Supreme State Council of the Belarusian-Russian Union State to come out against the United States’ pressure on Iran.
Some 3,000 market vendors amassed in front of the House of Government in Minsk on Thursday to protest the introduction of an 18-percent valued-added tax (VAT) on imports from Russia. The government responded by promising to form a working group that would settle all issues before February 20.
Anatoly Shumchenko, leader of the Perspektiva business association, was sentenced to 10 days in jail on Thursday for allegedly inciting vendors to take part in an unauthorized protest.
Market vendors in Novopolotsk and adjacent cities in the Vitebsk region joined Thursday’s nationwide strike over a new value-added tax (VAT) rule called by the Perspektiva business association.
Some 1000 market vendors amassed on an outdoor market in Brest on Thursday to protest a new taxation rule that requires them to pay an 18-percent value added tax (VAT) on goods imported from Russia.
Ninety five percent of market vendors in Vitebsk joined the nationwide strike in protest against a new value-added tax (VAT) rule in trade with Russia, Anatoly Shapovalov, local head of the Perspektiva small business association, told BelaPAN.
Belarusian human rights activists have come up with a book that describes mechanisms allegedly used by the authorities to rig the 2004 national referendum and elections for the House of Representatives of the National Assembly.
Five independent observers who monitored last year’s referendum and parliamentary elections have been charged with minor civil offenses, Nikolai Astreiko, an activist who coordinated the work of independent monitors, told BelaPAN.
A new edition of the media law should give the media more freedom, Belarusian lawmaker Yuri Kulakovsky told Miklos Haraszti, OSCE representative on freedom of the media, at a meeting in Minsk on Thursday. "We stick to the principle whereby everything is allowed except what is explicitly prohibited by the law," Mr. Kulakovsky, chairman of the House of Representatives` human rights committee, said, adding that it is extremely important for lawmakers to guarantee media freedom and defend journalists’ rights.
Nikolai Lozovik, secretary of the central election commission, noted that the commission has found nothing wrong in the decision to redraw the borders of the number 52 election district in Grodno.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday sentenced a former top aide to President Alexander Lukashenko to four years in prison for embezzling more than US$3.2 million (euro2.5 million) in state funds.
The Minsk City Court’s civil case panel on Thursday upheld a 40-million award to Finance Minister Nikolai Korbut for an allegedly libelous front-page headline run by the sports newspaper Pressbol.
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