Human rights activists have to work underground

• 26.10.2007, 14:31

The Supreme Court of Belarus announced a judgement on complain of unregistered public organisation Viasna (Spring) to the Ministry of Justice.

23 July all necessary registration documents were sent to the Ministry of Justice. After a month Viasna was rejected the registration. The reason is that 20 from 69 founders had administrative penalties, and some of them even some penalties.

After that the human right activists sent a complaint to the Supreme Court. The examination of the case began on Tuesday, but was postponed, because the human rights activists demanded the Ministry of Justice to give documents in Belarusian and conduct the trial in Belarusian. 26 October judge Yakhnavets, reading the sentence in Belarusian, rendered the decision of the Ministry of Justice competent. During the reading of the sentence, lawyer Uladzimer Labkovich set down on a bench ostentatiously in protest against unlawful, in his opinion, decision, Nasha Niva reports.

It should be reminded that human rights association Viasna was abolished in autumn 2003. Since that time the organization has been working illegally in fact. During the time of its existence Viasna has helped thousands of repressed citizens.