On January 9, the Economic Court in Minsk imposed a fine of 5 million rubles and confiscation of 961 million rubles (appr. $70,000 as of the date of the sentence) from Minsk-based Lohvinau bookstore. The company was charged with ‘illegal business practices’, i.e. selling books without being registered at the Information Ministry.
Its owner, publisher Ihar Lohvinau, had applied for registration eight times, and all the applications were turned down. The official papers explained the reasons: the applicants violated requirements of both form and contents of the application (January 24); the private unitary enterprise Lohvinau … located at Minsk, Nezalezhnasti ave. 37-a … for inexact indication of the place of registration of the legal entity (February 28); the size of the state duty for registration does not correspond to legal requirements (June 12); the electronic payment order provided does not meet the requirements of article 251, part 2 of the Code on Taxes (August 29); the type of premises was not indicated in the application form as required by a ruling of the Information Ministry (October 10); the incorrect information on postal code was provided (November 25).
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The Supreme Court of Belarus also dismissed Lohvinau’s cassational appeal against the fine.
Lohvinau was awarded with IPA Freedom to Publish Prize.
Indifferent Belarusians decided to give a helping hand to the publisher and started a fundraising campaign on January 20, which has recently crowned with success.
“Now I’m moved and very grateful to everyone who was responsive on our appeal and helped us. I am very glad to know that there are not only people who want to close us down, but also those who are willing to support,” Ihar Lohvinau told news agency BelaPAN.
“It means a lot to us. First of all, we will be able to work as usual and we will not have to fold up,” he stressed.
