On July 18 judge of Zavadski district of Minsk Aleh Zyamtsou dismissed another complain by lawyers of Alyaksandr Kazulin (Alexandr Kozulin). The defense lawyers of the former candidate for presidency demanded to repeal the decree of the prosecutor’s office, which hadn’t brought up a criminal case against Almaz policemen, who arrested Alyaksandr Kazulin on March 25. As said by lawyers, Almaz policemen were insulting Kazulin and injured him by handcuffs.
EU Supreme Representative on foreign and security policy Xavier Solana expressed deep concern with the sentence (5,5 years of imprisonment) passed to ex-candidate for the Presidential post Aliaksandar Kazulin.
Owners of route-taxis of Brest keep on the hunger strike launched on July 5 against the republican tax imposed on the vehicles imported with commercial purposes.
On July 18 in the night unknown hooligans attacked an editorial office of Baranavichy regional newspaper Intex-Press. Leaflets were pasted to the door. They ran: “It’s time to pay for everything! Death to traitors of Motherland!”
A FEW MONTHS ago it looked as though the subject of the Group of Eight summit in Russia would be Russia itself. Under the leadership of President Vladimir Putin, Russia has retreated from the democratic ideals to which it aspired when it was invited into the G-8; in a speech in May in Lithuania, Vice President Cheney took aim at this backsliding, accusing Mr. Putin`s government of unfairly restricting citizens` rights. But during the three days of summitry that ended yesterday, the attempts to call Mr. Putin to account were limited -- and Mr. Putin batted them away with contempt.
Andrei Sannikau disagreed with the conclusion I had drawn in my last commentaries that I wrote after the conference on the heritage of the Paris magazine “Culture” held by the Polish Institute. We should reckon Andrei Sannikau’s opinion. He is the international coordinator of Charter’97 (www.charter97.org) - the Belarusian analogue of the Czech Charter 77 - the principal forum for the democratic opposition in the “last dictatorship of Europe”. Thus, Mr. Sannikau rejects the idea that is cited in my commentary as the key slogan of the opposition: “Everything, even Lukashenka, is better than Russia”. So he writes: “I don’t consider Lukashenka able to ensure sovereignty. And I don’t want to choose between plague and cholera.”
The Prosecutor’s office of Minsk has cancelled a decree to suspend preliminary investigation of a slaughter case in which a journalist of the “Komsomolskaya Pravda In Belarus” Aleh Ulevich was injured. As the letter of the head of supervisory department of the prosecutor’s office reads, it has been done in connection with incompleteness of the investigation and a necessity to carry out additional investigation. The files of the criminal case have been sent to the department of investigation of the Central Administration of Interior Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee.
A well-known journalist and human rights activist Valery Schukin has addressed a complaint to Justice Minister concerning gross violation of law by judge of Maskouski district of Minsk Alyaksei Rybakou. That judge had delivered a verdict to the former candidate for presidency Alyaksandr Kazulin, 5 and a half years on imprisonment in a minimum security colony.
We wish to express our gratitude to the courageous men and women attending “The Other Russia” Summit today and tomorrow in Moscow. This alternative to the G8 summit has been organized by Garry Kasparov, Lyudmila Alekseyeva and other Russian human rights and political leaders. The laudable purpose of the “Other Russia” Summit is to focus the world’s attention on the increasingly autocratic and repressive policies of the Russian Government.
As the human rights center Viasna was reported by a human rights activist Syarhei Housha, on July 16 at 12 noon near the hotel Haryzont in Baranavichy Mikalay Aharodnik was detained. He was returning from a holiday. To the questions of a policeman he answered in Belarusian. Because of that he was taken to the police department for identification, and there a report was drawn up against him for alleged insubordination to police. A trial was scheduled for July 17, but policemen were absent, and the trial was postponed.
On July 16 a monthly rally was held in the center of Baranavichy on the occasion of the Day o Solidarity. At Lenin Square policemen detained seven young activists. Six of them were underage. They were taken to the police department and kept there for four hours. A report has been drawn up against an underage Yuliya Kharkevich only.
“Putin, You Must Repent!” – such a streamer was put up yesterday at one of the bridges of Minsk. The streamer remained there for a few hours and was observed by numerous car drivers.
Belarus and Gazprom are again holding talks on the joint enterprise based on Beltransgaz. The joint venture was discussed in 2003, but at that time Belarus and Russian couldn’t agree on the price. Belarus evaluated Beltransgaz at $5 bln, while Gazprom was ready to pay only $1 bln for 50 per cent of the shares. Today the Belarusian government and Gazprom are to stat a new round of negotiations on evaluation of Beltransgaz. This time the evaluator will be present at the talks - both the sides agreed on the Netherlands bank ABN AMRO.
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