Belarus police set to keep hold of Belsat TV equipment seized in March


The case of Belsat TV ‘illegal use of the Belsat trademark’ is not over.

As reported earlier, the police searched Minsk offices of Belsat TV on March 31. Along with 9 Belsat TV computers, the police seized a GoPro camera, a video camera, a picture camera, microphone which belong to our contributors.

Last week police officer Uladzislau Padrez, who had previously been involved in the case of Ales Barazenka, asked one of our freelance cameramen to come on January, 13. At that, he was not officially summoned. As a result, on Saturday a protocol was drawn upon the freelancer for the illegal use of the Belsat trademark on Belsat TV.

The police want to bring the case to court not to give back the equipment seized, Alyaksei Minchonak, the official representative of Belsat TV in Belarus, believes.

“It seems to me that Pershamayski district police officers are not acting on their own initiative. They were ordered not to give back our equipment; now they are trying to build a case of the situation. They will definitely make an attempt to confiscate our equipment which was kept in the police station after the searches; however, there has been no court ruling on its confiscation. Now we should expect them to set a trial date. This may happen within a month. We will not let such things slide by; we will seeking for getting our equipment back,” Minchonak said.

The case about the Belsat trademark has lasted for about five years. According to the BELSATplus company owner, our channel has violated the interests of his business. The businessman appealed to the Supreme Court of Belarus, but it did not satisfy his demands.

Then BELSATplus company owner tried to ban our channel from using the Belsat TV trademark. At first, the Supreme Court dismissed the claims.

The re-examination of the case was initiated by the Presidium of the Supreme Court, and the case was heard by another panel of judges. On September 4, 2014, the court granted the appeal of Andrey Belyakou and banned our channel from using the “Belsat TV” trademark for broadcasts on the territory of Belarus and on the web page.

In 2017, Belyakou filed another complaint against Belsat TV.

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