Valery Shchukin Has Court Ruling Abolished

01.09.2006.

According to RFE/RL

Vitsebsk Pershamaiski Borough Court arrested the account of Valery Shchukin’s mobile phone with the aim to execute the fine to which the human rights activist was sentenced during the presidential election. However, on 31 August Mr Shchukin managed to prove that his account was arrested illegally.

As it was found out at the court sitting, the fine for alleged insult of the chairman of the electoral commission in which Mr Shchukin was registered as an observer was paid the month before. The district court didn’t know it for some unknown reason. That’s why the College Board of Vitsebsk Regional Court set the ruling aside. Valery Shchukin also turned the attention of the College Board to the fact that such way to execute fines wasn’t at legal at all. According to the legislation, fines are to be paid from citizen’s income, not from the expenditures that don’t belong to the person who has paid them off. According to Shchukin, such measures as the ones that were taken by the borough court are to be prohibited at the highest level possible, because otherwise there could be established the practice of exacting fines from the fees that are paid for public utilities, etc. However, the College Board left this remark without comments. That’s why Valery Shchukin intends to apply with the appropriate application to the Supreme Court.