The court of the Oktyabrsky district of Viciebsk recognized Vladimir Lunev and Vitaly Skryl as guilty in "fabricating a fragment" of the media material. This was recorded in the protocol on violation by journalists of part 2 of Article 22.9 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

The court did not take into account that the effect of this article of the Code of Administrative Offenses extends to the media, and not to individuals who are Vitaly Skryl and Vladimir Lunev. Thus, journalists are fined 558 rubles each for speaking with the residents of Vorša. Since the court could not prove that the guys are related to the site belsat.eu and to the appearance on it of the material "What for in Vorša so do not like Alexander Lukashenko".

The examination of the administrative case in court began on February 19. But one day was not enough, and on February 22 a new meeting was appointed, to which Judge Igor Belous summoned witnesses, after hearing which, he came to the conclusion that the offense had indeed been committed.

Administrative cases against journalists were initiated by the Vorša militiamen. In the report, compiled by Vitaly Skryl, police major Lilia Trushko, it was about "fragments of interviews that were posted on the foreign television site belsat.eu". Thus, according to the originator of the protocol, "illegal production of media products" was carried out.

According to Trushko, the offense was solved with the help of traffic policemen. To do this, the police used as much power and resources as if they were looking for dangerous criminals. At least, it follows from the explanations of the originator of the protocol.

"On January 25, I was monitoring the Internet, and I noticed the material "Why does not Lukashenka like that in Vorša?". I remembered that on January 17, a video recording of how unknown young people were questioning the Orschans was happening on Lenin Square. Together with the employee who performed video fixing, we compared the plot to belsat.eu and recording of the service video camera. We concluded that the participants in the story are the same passers-by. An order was given to promptly establish their identity. And also the personality of two men who shot passers-by on Lenin Square. To do this, we distributed a service video to all units. Two men were identified by a traffic policeman who detained Vladimir Lunev's car for checking documents, "Major Trushko explained in court.

Vitaly Skryl and Vladimir Lunev do not deny that they really went to Vorša in mid-January 2018. And during that trip they noticed that they were being watched by people from the car, which accompanied them through the city. And on the road from the Vorša auto Vladimir Lunev stopped traffic police, and the staff rewrote the names of the driver and passengers. However, there are no documents on what happened "surveillance for operational purposes" or something like that.

An unprecedented case for Viciebsk was the fact that Luneva and Skryl were tried not in Vorša, at the place of the incident, but in the regional center. The Vorša court did not want to consider the cases of Viciebsk journalists: an appeal was sent to the Viciebsk regional court, and the chairman appointed the October district court of Viciebsk as the venue for consideration.

On the first day of the trial, police officers could not explain what the nature of the offense was. They had to agree that talking with people in a public place is not forbidden, and recording the content of a conversation using technical means is also not prohibited. Determine who is a "journalist", and why they applied administrative clause 22.9 to individuals, and not to legal entities, the ROVD representatives also failed.

The judge, after listening to Vitaliy Skryl's speech, where all the arguments against the prosecution were listed, as well as mistakes in the papers from the Vorša militia, decided to force passers-by on the process, whose statements were included in the video. According to police, they installed the identity of three people.

Witnesses summoned to the court on February 22, confirmed perhaps only that they answered the questions of two guys, one of whom had a video camera, and the other had a microphone. Two of the three witnesses said that they could not confirm that they were Lunev and Skryl. All the witnesses said that they do not remember what they were wearing or even what they were talking about.

Attempts to find out how young people "produced media products" after talking on the street were not even tried by the court. After the conclusions of the protocol compiler, Liliya Trushko, who frankly stated that she did not know and did not remember the Law on the Mass Media, Judge Igor Belous agreed that there was an administrative offense.

All two days while the trial was going on, he passionately defended himself and his friend Vitaly Skryl. He thoroughly studied the laws relating to the activities of the media, pointed out to the court a lot of miscalculations in the documents of the case. But everything turned out to be in vain.

Now the arguments against the conclusions of the militia and the Oktyabrsky district court will be set out in the cassation appeal, as both guys believe that they were accused and punished unfairly.

According to baj.by