Henadz Fiadynich: No Court Could Deprive Me Of My Leadership Abilities

While the verdict has not come into force, he officially holds the post of chairman of the REP trade union.

Last week, Chairman of the independent trade union REP Henadz Fiadynich and chief accountant of the organization Ihar Komlik filed appeals against the verdict made on August 24, 2018, according to which they were found guilty under Part 2 of Article 243 of the Criminal Code of Belarus ("tax evasion on extremely large scale").

"I think the appeal will be considered not earlier than in a month," Henadz Fiadynich told the website palitviazni.info.

According to Fiadynich, while the verdict has not come into force, he officially continues to hold the post of a Chairman of the trade union.

"And even if the Minsk city court upholds the decision of the district court, then, in fact, nothing will change," says the head of the REP trade union. "No court can deprive me of any of my leadership abilities, so I will formally continue to do the work that I did. Another thing is that liberty limitation envisages a lot of restrictions, therefore, for example, I am banned from participating in many events that our organization will hold."

Henadz Fiadynich adds that the chairman of the REP trade union is elected at the congress, which, according to the charter, will be held in 2020. It will not be held ahead of time.

"Someone will perform the duties of the chairman of the union, although we have not yet decided on their candidacy," he said, "There’s one thing we are one hundred percent are sure of – our union will work as it worked before. Nothing will change."

Important to note, the Savetski district court of Minsk sentenced the leaders of the REP trade union to 4 years of restriction of freedom without sending to correctional institutions, with the prohibition to hold senior positions for a period of 5 years.