BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

21/03/2007

Belarussian Court Dismisses Case Over Tribute To Nazi Ofiicers' Code

A district court in Minsk on March 20 dismissed a suit that was filed by opposition activist Valyantsina Svyatskaya against former Interior Minister Yury Sivakou over his article that appeared last July in a magazine published by the Interior Ministry, Belapan reported. In his article Sivakou, now chairman of an association of special task police veterans called Honar (Honor), made extensive use of quotations from German army officers' code of honor written by Adolf Hitler, suggesting that the Belarusian army should consider adopting some principles formulated by the Nazi leader. Svyatskaya filed the suit to seek 60 million rubles ($28,000) in moral damages, saying that Sivakou's article insulted her as a citizen of Belarus. The judge reportedly dismissed the case, maintaining that the article in question was the subject of a polemical dispute. Sivakou has been barred from the European Union's territory over his suspected involvement in the 1999-2000 disappearances of four opponents of Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka. JM

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/03/3-CEE/cee-210307.asp