On January 24 a Supreme Court of Belarus starts hearings of the case at the suit of Justice Ministry to a public association “Belarusian think-tank”. It was stated at a briefing in the US Embassy in Minsk by a Belarusian sociologist Aleh Manaeu. As said by him, Justice Ministry demands to suspend activities of the organization.
“I think that a scenario of the authorities’ efforts would be the same as concerning the Independent Institute of Social and Economic and Political Research (an organization headed by A. Manaeu until its liquidation by the Supreme Court in April 2005- BelaPAN). First Justice Ministry would suspend activities of the think-tank on the grounds that its legal address is a private apartment, and later, I do not know how much time it would take, a month or two, a decision on liquidation of the organization would be passed,” A. Manaeu said.
The sociologist reminded that the public association “Belarusian think-tank” was registered in 1997. Then it consisted of 18 independent research canters. After the presidential elections in 2001 their quantity decreased considerably. Part of them was closed by the authorities, for instance the International Center of Political Research, Belarusian Center of Constitutionalism, and part of them were liquidated by their founders.
