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Judge in Minsk begins hearing tax office's suit against rights defender Stefanovich

 

A judge of the Partyzanski District Court in Minsk on Friday began hearing the district tax office's suit against prominent Belarusian human rights defender Valyantsin Stefanovich.

In September, the Partyzanski district tax office sued Mr. Stefanovich, deputy chairman of a human rights organization called Vyasna (Spring), to collect 31.5 million rubels (some $6,000 at the time) that he allegedly should have paid in income tax and six million rubels in penalties.

He was ordered to pay the amounts after Belarusian authorities received information from Lithuania and Poland about his bank accounts in those countries.

The Belarusian tax authorities announced that they viewed the money in the accounts as his personal income and accused him of concealing it. Mr. Stefanovich insists that the money was not his income and therefore was not subject to tax. According to him, the money was donated by various foundations for financing Vyasna's activities and, in particular, for providing assistance to victims of politically motivated persecution.

During Friday's hearing, Mr. Stefanovich produced a written confirmation from the Amnesty International office in the Netherlands and a Danish human rights foundation that he had received money from them for human rights activities.

These documents and also a letter from the Lithuanian justice ministry, which declared the bank account statements provided to Belarus null and void, were admitted into evidence.

The judge agreed to give the plaintiff time to examine the new evidence and announced that the hearing would resume on December 16.

Earlier in the day, a district judge rejected Mr. Stefanovich's appeal against a fine of 4,750,000 rubels ($835) imposed on him by the district tax office. //BelaPAN