A judge of Minsk’s Tsentralny District Court has rejected a suit filed by opposition politician Anatol Lyabedzka against the Committee for State Security (KGB), which he says refuses to give back stuff seized from him after the December 19, 2010 post-election protest.
"Yesterday, I received a note saying that my suit had been rejected because I may not appeal to court over my dispute with the KGB", Mr. Lyabedzka, chairman of the United Civic Party, told BelaPAN.
The politician said that he would file an appeal to a higher-level court.
He noted that the decision to dismiss his suit had been made by Judge Alena Syamak, who he said had been delaying setting a date for a hearing on a foreign travel ban on him for two months, citing a tight schedule.
Mr. Lyabedzka added that he could also face the seizure of his property over a fine imposed on him in late March. "I paid the fine in early May and notified the Orsha City and District Court of the matter, but on May 14 I received a note from Minsk’s Tsentralny District Court, saying that a case had been opened against me under the Civil Offenses Code because of my alleged failure to pay the fine,” he said. He denounced the pressure on him as a “provocation".
Mr. Lyabedzka was fined together with two other opposition politicians -- Syarhey Kalyakin, leader of the "Spravedlivy Mir" (A Just World) Belarusian Party of the Left, and Alyaksandr Atroshchankaw, a member of European Belarus, -- after they were arrested in Orsha while traveling by train to Moscow to fly to Belgium for meetings with European Commission representatives.
The three politicians, who are under a foreign travel ban list, were found guilty of disorderly conduct.
