Narodnaya Volia Appeals against Judgement on Aleh Praliaskouski’s Action

15.10.2007. Tags: mass media, journalists.
Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists.

Narodnaya Volia paper and its journalist Maryna Koktysh have appealed against Leninski District Court’s judgement on Aleh Pralaskouski’s action to Minsk City Court. The paper and the journalist demand that the district court’s judgement be cancelled and the case dismissed in what concerns both the monetary compensation and publishing a disclaimer. On 1 October Judge Zhulkouskaya, having studied the action brought by Head of the Ideology Department of the President's Office Aleh Praliaskouski concerning honor and business reputation protection and compensation for moral damage, decreed to make Narodnaya Volia and Maryna Koktysh pay the plaintiff respectively 25 million (about $12,000) and 2 million (about $950). The action was brought because of the article Uladzimir Kholad Still in Temporary Detention, which appeared in Narodnaya Volia on August 2nd in the section ‘High-profile Cases.’ The article covered the fact that a high officer of the President's Office had been detained on the allegations of bribery. Mr Praliaskouski considered himself offended by a fragment discussing rumours in the corridors of power that Uladzimir Kholad might have accepted a bribe not for himself and might have been ‘on special terms’ with his boss Aleh Praliaskouski.