Pavel Levinov's complaint against the decision of the judge of the October Court Inna Grabovskaya from April 17 was considered by the judge of the Viciebsk Regional Court Irina Smolyakova. According to the decision of the lower court, the human rights activist was brought to administrative responsibility for part 1 of Article 23.34 of the Code of Administrative Violations for participation in mass events on March 25 and 26 and punished by 15 days of arrest.
Pavel Levinov in the regional court represented Andrei Levinov (brother) as a defender. The court began with a statement on the challenge of the judge for the reason that at one time Pavel Levinov informed the traffic police and the Interior Department of the regional executive committee about the violation of traffic rules by Judge Irina Smolyakova – she crossed Shubin Street outside the pedestrian crossing. However, the judge did not satisfy the challenge.
Further examination of the case testified that the distrustful attitude towards the judge was based on certain grounds. To explain the essence of the administrative case and the complainant's complaint, the judge took only one and a half minutes. They say that Pavel Levinov does not agree with the court's conclusions, since, in his opinion, they do not correspond to the actual circumstances of the case. Participation in mass events, he did not take, but performed an observer mission. In addition, during the administrative process, the rules of procedural law were violated, including the right to defense. "Pavel Levinov requests the decision of Judge I. Grabovskaya to cancel, and the case of an administrative offense terminated because of the absence of administrative offense in the actions," Irina Smolyakova noted.
If the vision outlined by the judge did not anger the defender, then the case would end very quickly. However, the defense counsel did not agree with the interpretation of the complaint expressed by the judge. He stressed that Pavel Levinov does not complain about the violation of the law, but gives specific references to articles of national and international law signed by the Republic of Belarus.
As Andrei Levinov stated, the court of first instance did not want to understand the essence of the matter, and, apparently, the regional court also does not want this. He said that he had to read out the complaint in full, with six attachments. The judge obviously did not like it, but she did not object. "Do you want to read everything, please," she answered.
In his speech, the defender focused on the fact that the behavior of Pavel Levinov during the legal monitoring fully corresponded to the status of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee and the rules of law. As required by law, he had with him the direction of the organization to oversee the mass event in the city of Viciebsk, as well as the certification of a freelance correspondent for the newspaper "Viciebsk Courier". On March 15, he informed the head of the Internal Affairs Directorate that he would monitor human rights on March 25-26 during peaceful assemblies, in response to which he received a letter with gratitude for his active civil position.
There were many convincing arguments, but they did not influence the final decision in any way. After listening to the defense counsel – Pavel Levinov, who at the end of his speech called for the correction of the legal error of the lower court, Judge Smolyakova decided: "In the time of the administrative arrest appointed to Pavel Levinov, the time of his detention on March 26 from 13 hours 10 minutes to 23 hours 30 minutes. In the remaining part, the decision of the Oktyabrsky district court is left unchanged, and the complaint is not satisfied."
Thus, having upheld the decision of the lower court, Judge Irina Smolyakova demonstrated the real attitude of the state system to human rights defenders and human rights activities. Reflecting negligently on the documented immunity of the observer of the human rights organization, a representative of the regional court upheld the trend towards an actual ban on human rights activities.
S. Horki
