Human rights defender trolls 3 Ministries at once
Harry Pahanyaila has been suing the officials who added his name on the list of travel banned for a year.
— Do the reasons for banning me from travel affect my good name?
— But we have openly apologized to you...
— So, it means that they do, don't they?
— Your good name? Well... they... probably affect it.
— Can you tell me, please, whether the public opinion about my duties...
— We have not distributed such information about you!
This is an extract from Harry Pahanyaila's conversation of with Alyaksei Behun, head of the Citizenship and Migration Department of the Republic of Belarus who became impatient and started shouting in response to Pahanyaila's calm trolling. It was not a conversation in a cafe, it was in court. Pahanyaila has been suing officials for about a year since he was illegally banned from travel in March 2012. He has been demanding explanations from them despite the fact that the ban was lifted last summer.
Representatives of the Ministries of Finance, Justice and Internal Affairs tried to justify themselves in court on January 21. The imposing men with suitcases flushed and lookedg away unable to answer Pahanyaila's questions. And how would you answer them when he was asking for the name of the person who added his name on the list of travel banned people - an action that was called "a technical error"?
“I need the position and the full name of the person who added my name on the list of travel banned and removed it later. I need to know the date when the decision was made," Pahanyaila kept repeating his mantra every 15 minutes.
The official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs replied with the information about a technical error.
“The Ministry of Internal Affairs sent you a written reply and apologized for the technical error that had caused the problem. It has been corrected now."
But it did not help much. Pahanyaila had all the necessary documents. It seemed that even the judge, Yury Shastakou, supported the human rights defender – the explanations seemed really absurd. But he stopped it in the end. By the way, the judge is on the EU black list. Pahanyaila agreed to stop the interrogation of the official... only to start another one concerning a different issue.
I asked the human rights defender whether he was tired of suing numerous officials and institutions after the hearing. He said that he wasn't and that he was unlikely to feel tired later.
“I do not think that I will ever get tired of it. We only have one way of showing the state that it is wrong, that the authorities violate human rights. We are doing it but protecting ourselves or other people in court."
The court's decision will be announced on the morning of January 23. Harry Pahanyaila does not think that he will get the 3 millions he demands (he has assessed his moral compensation). He seems to be enjoying the process itself.
