The publisher and bookstore keeper Ihar Lohvinau held a press-conference on Tuesday asking for help from the public, the Belarusian Association of Journalists (BAJ) reports.
On January 9, the Economic Court in Minsk imposed a fine of 5 million rubles and confiscation of 961 million rubles (appr. $70,000) from Lohvinau bookstore. The bookstore was charged with selling books without having registration of the Information Ministry.
“We are now filing the cassational appeal against the fine and confiscation of over 961 million rubles. But we do not bear hopes for the Supreme Court, so we start now raising public donations,” said Ihar Lohvinau.
If the Supreme Court dismisses the appeal, the bookstore will go bankrupt, but Lohvinau hopes the bookstore will survive with correct legal procedures and public support. The light scenario might be confiscation of property and introduction on the list of persons banned to leave Belarus. The worst scenario might include a criminal case.
The money will be raised at the address of the bookstore; also, an account will be opened.
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According to the amended law on publishing and distribution of print products, the titles of print production distributors are supposed to be published on the website of the Ministry of Information. The distributors were to register before January 1, 2015.
Lohvinau bookstore had applied for registration eight times but the Ministry turned down all the applications and gave far-fetched reasons for refusals .
It is to be recalled that Lohvinau’s license as a publisher was withdrawn first. The grounds for the decision was that the publishing house Lohvinau had been the publisher of the Belarus Press Photo 2011 album. The photo album was acknowledged ‘extremist’ by Ashmiany district court in 2012, and neither cassation appeal nor public indignation managed to lift this decision.
Lohvinau was awarded with IPA Freedom to Publish Prize.
