Minsk City Court Rejects Cassation Complaint of BPF Member Valiantsina Sviatskaya

24.04.2007.

In her complaint to Minsk city court Valiantsina Sviatskaya asked to cancel the decision of Frunzenski district court of Minsk which had ruled not to charge general Yury Sivakou. Sviatskaya also asked for moral and material compensation from “Honar”, Belarusian Association of veterans of Special Departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Sviatskaya appealed to court after publication of Yury Sivakou’s article in the Association’s magazine.

The author of the article spoke positively about the Code of Officer’s Honor in Hitler’s Army. Frunzenski district court did not think that those statements could insult honor and dignity of Valiantsina Sviatskaya.

RFE/RL reports, on April 23^rd, Minsk city court confirmed the previous decision. Albert taipau, representative of the Association, comments: “Even if we accidentally harmed the patriotic feelings of Ms. Sviatskaya, then we have already apologized to her on behalf of Sivakou and on behalf of the association during the hearing in the district court. At the same time, Ms. Sviatskaya had a subjective view on the information that was contained in the article. We think she explained the information in a biased way, to her advantage. The court made an absolutely grounded decision”.

Valiantsina Sviatskaya points out, she has not expected a positive decision from either the district, or the city courts: “You think, I was expecting anything else? I didn’t expect anything, because in our country the law does not work yet. If it was written by a member of a pro-democratic political party, the party would not exist anymore”.

However, she is not going to stop the struggle: “Firstly, the article really did exasperate me. I have said it earlier and I will insist on that. Secondly, this case has no time limitation. Thirdly, the situation is not comfortable for Mr. Sivakou, so let him have some more minutes of discomfort”.

Valiantsina Sviatskaya plans to appeal to the Supreme Court of Belarus and to send a complaint to the UN Human Rights Commission.

When Lukashenka came to power in 1994, Yury Sivakou worked in his government as a Minister of Internal Affairs, Minister of Sports, and deputy head of the President’s Office.

In September 2004, he was put on a list of Belarus top officials, who are not allowed entry to the European Union, on the ground of suspicion that they were related to disappearance of the opposition politicians.

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