Judge Ran Away from Trial Over Human Rights Activists :: Charter'97 :: News

On January 23, on the third day of a trial in the case of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee member Pavel Lyavinau, judge Natalya Karablina suspended the meeting for 20 minutes. However, she didn’t return to the court room of Pershamajski court of Minsk, Radio Racyja informs.

After 30 minutes more in the court room, participants of the court session started looking for the judge. She was hiding in the office of the chairman of the court Byassmertny. Chairman’s assistant Alena Tsyhankova ordered to vacate the premises. Those present were indignant. They were waiting for the verdict of the court. Then the assistant called in police, but people in the court room were not intimidated by policemen with machine guns.

The assistant of the court chairman flatly denied to give a book of complaints. She said that the court had finished its work. Participants of the session started to write a collective complaint to the chairman of the court and justice ministry, signed by most people staying in the court at that moment, 22 persons.

When people were leaving the court premises at 7.30 p.m., hordes of policemen and even people in mufti gathered near it to guard it. The judge in her office announced to Lyavinau personally the ruling about a 62,000-rubles fine.

The human rights activist had been detained for stickers urging to boycott elections. These stickers do not contradict the existing legislation, so he was charged with cursing. This charge was the reason for detention of the organizer of independent observation at local election on the polling day. Mr. Lyavinau called the trial a politically motivated one.