Leninski district court in Brest imposed the maximum penalty on independent journalist Ales Lyauchuk for ‘illegal production and distribution of media products’ (Part 2 of Article 22.9 of the Administrative Code).
The judge and the police have had no evidence that the journalist did post the interview with football player Raman Vasilyuk on the website of Belsat TV.
Moreover, Lyauchuk provided the necessary evidence that he had interviewed the head of the football club Dinamo-Brest for news agency BelaPAN that is accredited in Belarus.
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Despite proof of Mr. Lyauchuk’s innocence, he was Br 9 mln fined by judge Aleh Miranyuk.
“It is obvious that the decision was not made in Lenin district court, but by the KGB. But it was put into effect by two pawns in this game – judge Aleh Miranyuk and senior lieutenant, police officer Barys Dmitruk,” Lyauchuk told belsat.eu.
“Once again it has been proved that any defense [in court] has no sense. Belarus does not fair trials. Today I have been tried for working for the agency that is accredited in Belarus. An hour and a half the judge was deciding what [reasonable] arguments he should be made in the court’s decision so that it would not look stupid and ridiculous, but it still looked so. In particular, the article on the website was signed by letters S.A., and the judge came to the conclusion that these letter stood for my name and patronymic, and they were intentionally written backwards contrary to ‘mislead the court’ What an unalloyed idiocy!” Ales Lyauchuk wonders.
Previously, the independent journalist was persecuted for cooperation with Belsat TV. The first trial took place in December, 2014. The hearing was held with numerous violations. Judge Larisa Nazarenko found the reporter guilty and imposed Br 6 mln fine on him.
In March 2015, judge Raman Karaban fined Lyauchuk for contribution to Belsat TV (nearly Br 4 mln). The amount of penalties inposed on the journalist reached $ 1250. At the same time, Lyauchuk is facing another trial – for covering the religious conflict in the agrotown of Belavezhski.
