English

Judge upholds liquidation suit against Platforma

Judge Aleh Klyuyko of the Minsk Economic Court on October 9 upheld a liquidation suit against Platforma, a Minsk-based prisoners’ rights organization. The suit had been filed by the tax office of Minsk’ Savetski district, which claimed that the organization had repeatedly and grossly violated regulations, in particular by failing to promptly filing tax returns and by not being located at its legal address, BelaPAN said.

Dzmitry Sodel, a representative of the district tax office, said at the hearing that the some of the organization's letterheads had featured a different address, and that tax inspectors had repeatedly visited the organization at its legal address but found nobody there.

Platforma leader Andrey Bandarenka argued that there were no regulations specifying which of its addresses an organization should put on its letterhead.

As for the failure to file tax returns on time, he said that Platforma had already been fined for that, promptly paid the fine and could not have caused any damage to any one by that shortcoming because it was a not-for-profit organization.

“This court decision was predictable and expected,” Mr. Bandarenka commented to BelaPAN. “We all know that such decisions are made against human rights organizations and opposition political groups in our country.”

Mr. Bandarenka said that he would appeal the decision to a higher court and appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after exhausting all available domestic remedies.

Registered by the justice ministry in June 2011, Platforma addresses human rights abuse in correctional institutions and detention centers.

Earlier this year Platforma announced plans to press for adding prison and jail officers to the European Union’s list of Belarusians subject to entry bans and asset freezes for the use of “torture” against political prisoners.

"We support the European Union’s actions and will press for the inclusion in the list of prison and jail officers responsible for the torture, cruel, inhuman and humiliating treatment of citizens of our country,” Mr. Bandarenka said on March 1.

A list drawn up by Platforma featured eight officers, including the heads of the Committee for State Security (KGB)’s detention center, the Vitsba 3 prison near Vitsyebsk, Correctional Institution No. 17 in Shklow, Correctional Institution No. 5 in Ivatsevichy and Correctional Institution No. 9 in Horki.

Mr. Bandarenka told reporters in June that Platforma would conduct its own investigation into the deaths of prison inmates.

Platforma is "very concerned" about the recent deaths of several prisoners in disciplinary cells, including the husband of a Platforma member, he noted. "A preliminary inquiry raises suspicions that the man was killed," he said.

"In the space of four months alone, we have received reports of the deaths of four people in disciplinary cells. In all cases, the people were said to have committed suicide under completely unclear circumstances," Mr. Bandarenka said.

He noted that prosecutor`s offices had refused to investigate the suspicious deaths.

Mr. Bandarenka founded Platform after he had spent almost two years in prison on economic charges. In March 2011, the Minsk City Court acquitted him of the charges.

In late June, the Minsk City Prosecutor’s Office issued a formal warning to Mr. Bandarenka for allegedly discrediting Belarus. The warning came after Platforma appealed to the International Ice Hockey Federation to strip Belarus of the right to host the 2014 World Championship unless all political prisoners are freed and the authorities stop repressive measures against opponents of the government and civil society activists. According to the prosecutor’s office, the appeal contained “knowingly false information about the political and social situation in Belarus, the legal status of citizens in the Republic of Belarus, which discredits the Republic of Belarus or its agencies.”

In July, the KGB placed the 39-year-old Bandarenka on its “preventive register,” which automatically put him on the list of Belarusians “temporarily” banned from leaving the country.