Nikolai Korolyuk, head of the Belarusian transport procuracy was dismissed from his post for alleged poor working performance. This news was announced by the prosecutor general Vivctor Sheiman. According to Sheiman, Korolyuk’s dismissal is caused by violations, that occurred at the Belarusian railroad and were discovered late last year by the procuracy and SCS inspections. The transport prosecutor had allegedly ignored the illicit activities of some railway officials, whose actions inflicted a multi-million dollar damage upon the state. Their next step, said Sheiman, will be the complex examination of activities of the Belarusian transport procuracy.
Directors of the Gomel grease factory were arrested by the law-enforcers. The detainees are indicted for the power abuse, they had allegedly committed, reports Radio Ratsya. The Gomel department of the investigative committee opened legal action for power abuse against certain directors of the local grease factory back on January 11. The department for economic crimes also joined in the investigation process. According to some data, the factory suffered a $600thsd loss as a result of its directors’ embezzlement.
Spouse of the former director of the Minsk tractor plant Mikhail Leonov was denied an opportunity to meet her husband in jail and defend him in court. The attorney believes that the investigators deliberately made Elena Leonova a witness in the case in order to prevent her from being her husband’s lawyer. The lady is set to decisively fight for her rights.
The resources, which are still at the disposal of the Minsk tractor plant, will enable the company to operate for no more than two days – January 21 and 22, BelaPAN was told by MTP press-secretary Vadim Bitsan. According to him, the enterprise encountered serious difficulty after the authorities opened lawsuit against their director general Mikhail Leonov and placed him under arrest. The suppliers of spare parts reacted negatively to this news, as well as to the information that some other MTP’s representatives may soon be taken into custody too.
Belarusian Foreign Minister Mikhail Khvostov was welcomed in Libya by the leader of the Libyan revolution Muammar Qaddafi. Khvostov passed to Qaddafi a personal letter from Alexander Lukashenko. The delegation of the “house of representatives”, headed by Khvostov, stayed in Tripoli on January 15-19, taking part in the session on the Belarusian-Libyan cooperation in economic, trade and scientific spheres.
Beginning from March 1 the TV-6 channel will be replaced for Minsk viewers from 11.30p.m. until 5.30p.m. by the “First musical channel”, which had been set up a few weeks ago and is now broadcast on TV-6 waves from midnight till three in the morning. The “First musical channel” is the product of the “Dobrovideniye Ltd.”, which simultaneously televises TV-6 programs in Belarus. The company’s director Valery Kravchuk told the Charter’97 press-center that the daily 17H broadcasting of the musical channel won’t bring about any losses to TV-6, whose air time during the afternoon hours doesn’t cover its own expenses anyway. So, now the Belarusian viewers will watch for 17 hours in a row Russian and foreign pop music instead of the popular TV-6 programs. One could also recommend to the creators of the “First musical channel” to better think about their violation of copyright, for they illegally televise video clips, taken from foreign media.
As deemed by the president of the Belarusian entrepreneurs union Alexander Potupa, Lukashenko’s decree “On extra measures to regulate economic relations”, which came into force on January 18, turned the Committee for state control into a body, which can do anything. “Thus, the idea I voiced long ago finds confirmation – CSC will function as the forth branch of power,” – said Potupa in his interview to the newspaper “Izvestia”. The decree allows for the practice of extra-judicial expropriations, as far as in many cases the committee may execute both the duties of the detective and the judge, stressed the head of the union. The man is convinced that such an approach ruins the Belarusian economy.
The Belarusian Metallurgic Plant’s representatives believe that the size of damage under the recently instituted criminal case had been by far exaggerated, said on January 18 deputy director general for informational work Nikolai Aksenov. The legal action was opened a few days ago by the Committee for organized criminality and corruption of the Gomel region under art.424/3 of the Criminal Code – abuse of power. They cited the sum of the expected damage as equal to 111mln rubles.
“Belenergo” concern obliged its electricity-suppliers to cease catering for the needs of a number of organizations. The first, who fell under this order, were the companies-debtors from the Grodno region, which have the lowest indexes as far as the payment for the consumed energy.
On Friday the letter, written by the wives of the repressed Belarusian opposition members – Ludmila Karpenko, Irina Krasovskaya, Tatyana Klimova, Olga Zakharenko, Svetlana Zavadskaya and Zinaida Gonchar – was passed over to Vladimir Putin. During the Warsaw negotiations Vladimir Putin and Alexander Kvasnevsky, among other things, also discussed the situation in Belarus. Alexander Kvasnevsky said it on Friday in an interview to the Polish radio Zet. The presidents discussed the Belarus issue during the first couple of hours of their conversation.
The session of the Interparliamentary Union took place in Geneva throughout last week. The IPU considered cases of the Belarusian parliamentarians: missing Viktor Gonchar, incarcerated Andrei Klimov and Valery Schukin, who had recently served his three-month prison term. “In Gonchar’s case the commission expressed it concerns over the fact that despite the long period of time, which passed since the day of his disappearance, there’s no progress whatsoever in the investigation. And so, the commission determined to address the Belarusian authorities with a demand to hold the investigation more seriously. In Klimov’s case the commission raised concern over his continued imprisonment. The commission urges the Belarusian authorities to set him free,” – Radio Svaboda quotes IPU secretary general Anders Johnson as saying.
OSCE Chairman-in-office, the Foreign Minister of Portugal Jaime Gama, speaking at the January 17 session of the OSCE Permanent Council in Vienna, said that under his guidance the OSCE will continue assisting the work of the Advisory-Monitoring Group in Belarus.
Speaking at the January 18 seminar in Potsdam on “Political perspectives for Belarus” former head of the Advisory-Monitoring OSCE group in Minsk Hans-Georg Wieck stressed that the tension in the relations between OSCE and official Minsk is running high. According to Wieck, it remains unclear if his successor at the post will be granted Belarus visa. At the moment they are discussing the group’s mandate, which allows for the formation of democratic institutes in the country in question. As pinpointed by Wieck, “the Belarusian leadership wants international recognition, while applying harsh measures against the civil society”.
Belarusian leading industrial company – the Minsk Tractor Plant – stopped its conveyor belt on Friday, which is not likely to be brought back in operation until February. MTP director Mikhail Leonov’s arrest had largely paralyzed the sales of the manufactured commodity, says the MTP press-service head Vadim Bitsan.
Gomel regional attorneys’ commission embarked on the examination of activities of one of the Gomel’s famous lawyers Dmitry Ivanishko. Dmitry Ivanishko became popular as a lawyer after he acted for the past few years as a defender in a bunch of notorious political processes. For instance, he defended in court the assistant rector of the Gomel medical institute Vladimir Ravkov and engaged in the Mikhail Chigir’s son Alexander’s case. At the moment Ivanishko acts as an attorney to Yuri Zaitsev, father of Andrei Zaitsev – a member of the youth movement ZUBR, who committed a suicide on December 20, being unable to endure the pressure, exerted on him by the KGB agents. Yuri Zaitsev and his lawyer demand institution of criminal proceedings over the matter.
Dear Colleagues. Remember, please, you are expected to refer to the Charter`97 Press Center when using the site materials. News export , javascript-informer
, javascript-informer
