Authorities require European March organisers to pay 10 million rubles

The authorities have increased size of material claims against applicants for the European March held in Minsk on 14 October 2007 – now they require to pay about 10 million rubles.

Enterprise Gorremavtodor was the first to appeal to court against the European March organisers - Viktar Ivashkevich, Zmitser Khvedaruk, Yauhen Afnahel, Vintsuk Vyachorka, and Anatol Lyabedzka. The state enterprise estimated the sum of street cleaning after the rally of 2,135,000 rubles.

All organisers of the European March have received new claims:

Renavtodor of the Savetski District requires to compensate 1,328,761 rubles, Remavtodor of the Pershamaiski District - 800,670 rubles, housing municipal service of the Savetski District – 951,088 rubles, Partyzanski District – 662,430 rubles, housing municipal service of the Pershamaiski District – 1,747,428 rubles, Minskzelenstroi – 1,433,798 rubles, and housing municipal service of the Savetski District – 673,870 rubles.

If add sum of the new claims to the previous sum, the organisers must pay to the authorities about BYR 10 million, or USD 5,000.

Moreover, defendants in the case are forbidden to leave the country in accordance to the decree on Simplified Rules of Entry the Republic of Belarus that came into force 1 January this year.

As human rights activists think, doing so the authorities breach the guaranteed by the Constitution right for freedom of assembly that should be secured by the state.

“Citizens of any other country don’t pay to state for realisation of their constitutional rights. Guarantee of realisation of these rights is duty of the authorities. This claim demonstrates again the sneering attitude of the Belarusian authorities towards right of their citizens, and moreover, it doesn’t meet the international standards of human rights,” human rights activist Valyantin Stefanovich stresses.

“I think it is schizophrenia of the authorities. From the one hand they are speaking about necessity of improving relations with the EU, but from the other hand they claim to the contrary by such attitude towards the European March,” Yauhen Afnahel, one of the applicants for the European March, activist of the civil campaign “European Belarus,” said to the Charter’97 press center.

The examination of claims of the city housing municipal services against the European March organisers in the court of the Tsentralny District of Minsk is suspended in view of one of the defendants – deputy head of the Belarusian Popular Front party- is abroad now.

A representative of the Gorremavtodor didn’t bring proof at the trial that any harm had been caused to the enterprise. Moreover, the claim requires that the European March organisers should pay for street cleaning on that day from October (Kastrychnitskaya) Square to metro station Academy of Sciences.

The European March organisers deny flatly these demands. They said at the trial they hadn’t been present on October Square, hadn’t organised rally on that route, but acted in accordance to the Law on Mass Events, namely they had held a permitted by the Minsk executive committee rally from Academy of Sciences metro station to Banhalor Square and had even refused to hold the meeting. So they find all claims to be void.