Syarhei Kavalenka to go to law against head of Vitsebsk city executive committee

The oppositionist, who hung out a flag on the Christmas Tree in Vitsebsk, thinks his action was called hooliganism in the local press on order of Viktar Mikalaikin.

As Radio Svaboda reports, head of the Vitsebsk city executive committee Viktar Mikalaikin hold a special meeting with journalists. Syarhei Kavalenka, an activist of the Conservative Christian Party BPF from Vitebsk, reminds that soon after that meeting, three Vitsebsk newspapers published articles, which, according to the oppositionist, offended him and insulted his dignity and honour.

Syarhei Kavalenka thinks the article titled “Who Feels Bad When All of Us Feels Good” in the newspaper “Vitsbichi” was especially offensive. In this respect, the oppositionist applied the Kastrychnitski district court demanding to bring editor-in-chief Nina Tulinava and article’s author Natallya Vasilyeva to administrative responsibility.

The activist demands that apology for the insult to his dignity and honour should be printed in the newspaper “Vitsbichi” on the same page where the slanderous, in Kavalenka’s view, article appeared on January 14.

We remind that on January 7 a national white-red-white was hung out at the top of the 35-metres-high Christmas tree set up on Victory square in Vitsebsk. An activist of CCP BPF, 34-year-old Syarhei Kavalenka was detained for the act. On January 10 the prosecutor of Vitsebsk decided to place him in the remand prison for 2 months. A case on charges relating Article 339 Part 2 of the Criminal Code (repeated hooliganism, or committed by a group of persons, or connected with committing less serious bodily harm) has been opened against him. He faces up to 6 years of imprisonment under this article. On January 12, the oppositionist was released under his on recognizance.