Prosecutor issues verbal warning to opposition politician

A Minsk prosecutor's office has issued a verbal warning to Anatol Liabedzka, the leader of the United Civil Party, for his comments posted in the on-line newspaper Belarus Partisan and in the Narodnaya Volya newspaper. His comments dealt with the ruling of the Supreme Court which suspended the operation of the Belarusian Party of Communists.

"The ruling has a clearly political pre-text. It is not just about the Party of Communists. Tomorrow they can shut down any political structure which wants to live in accordance with the Constitution, not with the telephone law", Liabedzka told the European Radio for Belarus.

While at the prosecutor's office, the politician wrote a statement that there was no independent judiciary in Belarus and that he was "prepared to prove it at any court using exclusively legal arguments". Besides, everyone has the right to a personal viewpoint, Liabedzka says.

Verbal warning does not imply any legal consequences. Rather, it is a measure of psychological pressure.