Hazeta Slonimskaya Faces Trial for Insulting the President

On August 5, the chief edi­tor of Haze­ta Slonim­skaya Vic­tor Val­adaschuk was sum­moned  to the Slonim dis­trict police depart­ment where he was informed that an admin­is­tra­tive case was open against the edi­to­r­i­al office under art. 23.33 (insult­ing hon­or and dig­ni­ty of the pres­i­dent).

The chief edi­tor says the grounds for the case became an arti­cle «Voice from a vil­lage. The main thing is that the pres­i­dent can talk nice­ly» (dat­ed July 29, the col­umn Elec­tions-2015). The arti­cle rep­re­sents an inter­view with some vil­lagers about the forth­com­ing elec­tions. The edi­tor does not know yet which frag­ment caused the case to start.