A Horki citizen has to pay a 175 thousand BYR fine (around 44 EUR) for neglecting city landscaping rules. About five years ago he installed on a tree close to his house an information stand. He periodically left there books, journals, and brochures for anyone to take free of charge. Throughout these five years the stand was destroyed on several occasions; police was looking for vandals. Finally, another Horki man was prosecuted in court for destroying a self-made book fair.
To no avail Mr. Malanachkin numerous times enquired local authorities whether he could locate his stand in an officially designated place. At last, in the fifth year of the stand existence the authorities reacted.
“They decided to punish me. They banned distributing Bible, the New Testament, and other religious and legal matters literature, – shares Malanachkin. – They called me up on a municipality council, forbade [the stand], and fined me. Allegedly, I disregarded the Horki landscaping rules. And the stand was on a tree and had no relation to any landscaping.”
Local protestants are certain that this case has political undertones. Piatro Malanachkin is one of the initiators of a civic campaign to collect signatures against plans to build a nuclear power plant. Several thousands of local citizens supported the campaign.
