Today Minsk city court upheld the decision of October district court of Minsk in the suit of US citizen Arkadiy Mar, the deputy editor-in-chief of the “Belorusskaya Delovaya Gazeta” (BDG) Irina Khalip (Iryna Khalip) and publisher of the newspaper, a private unitary enterprise “Marat”. On April 11 the journalist and publishing firm have been found guilty of insulting honour and dignity of the plaintiff. Iryna Khalip was to pay compensation to Arkadiy Mar amounting to 10 million rubles (more than 4,500 USD), and the private unitary enterprise “Marat” was to pay 50 million rubles (about 23,000 USD). The plaintiff, as we have informed, asked a compensation of 1 million USD. Arkadiy Mar also demanded the reporter to refute some statements in her article “Oklahoma Would Never Learn About Lukashenka”.
Igar and Paval Marynich, the sons of the Belarusian political prisoner, leaders of the civil initiative “Freedom to political prisoners!”, members of the Council of Civil Initiatives “Svabodnaya Belarus”, have made an appeal today on the resolution of the Minsk Central District Court of sequestration of property to the judicial assembly on civil affairs of the Minsk Municipal Court. According to the resolution of judge Natalla Vaitsakhovich of 06.07.2005, from all sequestrated things only the iron, TV-set and bicycle simulator were returned to the ex-wife and sons of Mikhail Marynich. In the apartment where former Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Diplomat Mikhail Marynich resided, the property was inventoried at the sum of Br 4 mln.
Today this is the third day of the picket permitted by the powers and held at Bangalor Square by Babruisk dweller Lubou Sankievich. The woman went hunger striking June 15, protesting against the powers’ indifferent attitude towards her problems. Lubou Sankievich has been hunger striking for 13 days, but today she is going to stop the hunger strike because of health problems. The Babruisk dweller deems her hunger strike is ineffectual: the state leadership does not pay attention to her. “I will need the strength for struggle in the future”, - says Lubou Sankievich.
The hearing of the suit brought by the publishing house of the “Narodnaya Volia” newspaper against the Ministry of Information on recognizance the warning towards the newspaper illegal has started today in the Supreme Administrative Court (Valadarskaga Street - 8).
Yesterday evening leader of Communist Party of Belarusian Communists Syarhei Kalyakin had a car accident. A politician was returning home from a summer cottage on a road “Minsk-Brest” with his wife, son and mother. His car “GAZ-3110” crashed into “Opel Omega” worked by a drunk driver.
The editorial office of the Grodna “Pahonia” newspaper received a letter from a reformatory written by political prisoner, leader of the All-National Strike Committee of Entrepreneurs, friend of “Svabodnaya Belarus” Valery Levaneuski where he begs for help.
June 23, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) addressed a range of state institutions asking them to take measures on ceasing the wrongful acts of illegal issue and distribution of the “Glos znad Niemna” newspaper and on bringing the guilty to book. The BAJ appeal was sent to Minister of Information Uladzimir Rusakievich, Minister of Communication Services Uladzimir Gancharenka, head of the State Control Committee Anatol Tozik, Attorney General Piotar Miklashevich and also to the Public Prosecutor of Grodna Region, chairperson of the Grodna Office of RUE (Republican Unitarian Enterprise) “Belposhta” and the head of the Grodna publishing house.
Juzefa Waraksa, the head of the local branch of Union of Poles in Belarus, was murdered in Rakau. Legal investigators claim it’s an ordinary homicide. The suspect was detained the next day. This is a Rakau dweller; he was arrested and now is kept in the investigatory isolation ward.
On June 26, 1941 at the outskirts of the town in the natural landmark Tsagelnya, prisoners of Cherven transit prison were shot: Belarusians, Poles, Lithuanians and others. Mournful ceremony has a name “Igumen Route” and was organized for the 16th time this summer. In 1989 it has been discovered that the town of Cherven (previously known as Igumen) was similar to Kurapaty, as thousands of political prisoners were buried around it.
Majority of people living in Minsk have been very negative towards renaming of city streets and avenues. On the initiative of UCP, “Narodnaja Volia” has published a coupon with statement in favor of Minsk city referendum. We asked Anatolij Lebedko, the UCP leader, about the reaction of readers on this initiative. For the period of four days we have been receiving 100 to 200 letters every day. Almost two thousand people signed under the requirement to organize Minsk city referendum. They have told their firm “no” to the illegal edict. And only two persons out of all who sent us letters expressed their support to renaming the streets. It is two out of two thousand. These numbers tell us a lot. I would like to underline that these signatures were received by mail, or citizens brought them to the office themselves. This is an evident that the fact of streets renaming stung the people.
There are no prerequisites for an "orange revolution" in Belarus, said Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the State Duma, Russia`s lower house of parliament. "Those seeking to stage something like the Orange Revolution in Belarus have been increasingly vocal as of late," Gryzlov said at Friday`s plenary session of the Russia-Belarus Union Parliament in the Belarusian city of Gomel.
The taxation rules for distribution of independent newspapers via retail trade have been changed. According to the recent decree by Alyaksandr Lukashenka “On some measures for regulation of entrepreneurs’ activities” selling newspapers and magazines is excluded from the list of businesses where single tax is used.
Alyaksandr Lukashenka seeks to amend the Penal Code with a provision about a temporary nature of the death penalty in Belarus. As Interfax has learnt at the Belarusian president`s press service, Lukashenka submitted a bill to this effect to parliament today.
A top Belarussian nuclear scientist said on Thursday six sites had been chosen in his country for the construction of a nuclear power plant. However, he added the plan may not come true if Belarus has sufficient energy of other types.
Today a ceremony of signing of the intergovernmental Belarusian-Chinese agreement by exchanging letters on giving equipment for the National Library of Belarus was held in the foreign ministry of this republic. Deputy foreign minister of Belarus Viktor Gaisenok and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China Yu Zhenqi took part in the ceremony.
Under the bill such an offence will punishable as a criminal wrongdoing. Criminal punishment will be introduced for those caught drunk at the wheel twice over a period of twelve months.
Minsk - Belarus` authoritarian President Aleksander Lukashenko on Friday announced the effective cancellation of a moratorium on death penalties, according to a Friday Interfax news agency report. A bill submitted by Lukashenko to the country`s rubber stamp parliament amended the law to allow death penalties, as soon as the moratorium on state executions is lifted.
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