One More Fine under Dubious Arguments Imposed on Larysa Shchyrakova

In the first hear­ing the judge returned the report to police for com­ple­tion. Pre­vi­ous­ly, the report stat­ed that the video report “Barysau tragedy might repeat in Homel” (dat­ed Feb­ru­ary 7) was broad­cast on YouTube and on the local web­site Sil­ny­je Novosti. The com­plet­ed report includ­ed the state­ment that the report had been broad­cast on Bel­sat TV chan­nel.

“In fact it hap­pened the way the first report showed it,” says Larysa Shchyrako­va. “The judge sent the report for com­ple­tion because there was noth­ing to fine for. She con­sid­ered the police’s report stat­ing that “it was estab­lished that the video belonged to Bel­sat”. Mean­while, the jour­nal­ist insists that it does not fol­low from the video that it belongs to Bel­sat. She motioned to sum­mon the police offi­cer to give tes­ti­mo­ny, but the judge reject­ed the motion. The free­lancer chal­lenged the judge, doubt­ing her objec­tiv­i­ty. How­ev­er, the judge dis­missed the objec­tions and ruled to fine the jour­nal­ist for 25 b.a.

Larysa Shchyrako­va under­lined that she had made the report for Sil­ny­je Novosti, and all ques­tions why Bel­sat showed it should be addressed direct­ly to the chan­nel. She says she does not care where the gas ser­vices watched the report, per­haps it was a coin­ci­dence, but it is impor­tant that the flaw has been repaired. And she insists she has the right to gath­er and dis­sem­i­nate infor­ma­tion under the Con­sti­tu­tion. It has been the fourth tri­al against her accord­ing to arti­cle 22.9 this year; remark­ably, charges in two cas­es were dis­missed.

Mean­time, court offi­cers press on her col­league Kas­tus Zhuk­ous­ki to pay for some of the fines (he has had six of them this year), warn­ing that oth­er­wise his prop­er­ty will be arrest­ed.

One More Admin­is­tra­tive Report against Larysa Shchyrako­va