Yet another criminal case against a non-state newspaper for publicly degrading the President may be brought in Belarus soon

26.04.2005.

This follows from the response received by the senior editor of the non-state newspaper Zgoda Aliaxei Karol from the Procurator's Office of Partizanski Borough of Minsk. He tried to call to account the police officers who at the end of March broke into the apartment he rents, where the journalists were working, and took all office equipment away.
The procurator's letter said that the police had not committed any violations while searching the apartment and seizing the computers. On the contrary: the police officers found in the apartment materials (collages) which, if demonstrated, may, in the opinion of the Procurator's Office, be qualified as public defamation of the President (part 1 Article 368 of the Criminal Code). According to Procurator Ramanouski, the police took away the computers "because they had sufficient reasons to believe" that the collages had been produced using this equipment.
According to Partizanski Borough Procurator's Office, now all the materials in this case await further verification. The issue of restoring the computers to the owner will only be considered after the verification is over.
Mr. Karol is going to appeal against the decision taken by the Partizanski Borough Procurator's Office with the Procurator of Minsk. This Wednesday (27 April) he plans to stage a press-briefing to cover the recent events. (BAJ)

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