Court rules to recover Br1bn from Ihar Lohvinau

The Economic Court of Minsk has ruled to recover around 1 billion Belarusian rubles from bookshop owner Ihar Lohvinau.

The decision was taken at the trial today, BelaPAN reports.

The bookshop is fined 30 penalty units (5.5 million rubles). The court also ruled to seize an income of 961,251,353 rubles. Ihar Lohvinau says it's not the income but the shop's total revenues.

The court decision can be appealed against within 10 days.

The iconic intellectual address of the Belarusian capital turned to be in danger of disappearance in December 2014. Unscheduled tax audit came to Lohvinau bookshop in early December. They put seals on the room and seized documents for verification. After the inspection the bookshop was unsealed. But it was severely punished for working without the license of the Ministry of Information. On results of the audit held the bookshop is fined nearly Br1 billion, that has been the income from book sales for the year. This money will be recovered through court.

The shop owner Ihar Lohvinau said that for the year he had applied eight times to the Ministry of Information for a license. And every time he got a refusal. One of the refusals was connected with the incorrect postal code.