Opposition Politician Sues TV Channel Over US Funding Allegations

A senior member of the Belarusian Popular Front has filed a suit with Minsk’s Pershamayski District Court against the First National Channel over a TV report that accused the US embassy of funding Belarusian opposition forces.

In its prime-time news show in late May, the channel said that the diplomatic mission provided funding to opposition politicians under its small grant program.

The segment included video footage showing the interrogation of Dzmitry Shymanski, leader of the Belarusian Popular Front’s Brest city chapter, with an off-screen narrator claiming that he confessed to receiving money from the US diplomatic mission.

In an interview with BelaPAN, Mr. Shymanski said that he sought a retraction of the report and roughly $1,700 in damages.

The channel also broadcast a hidden camera footage that showed Alyaksandr Melnikaw, head of the small grant department at the US embassy, allegedly confirming the report.

The report claimed that US embassy officers told money recipients to sign non-disclosure statements and even intimidated some of them.

The channel said that the case was investigated by Belarusian law-enforcement agencies.
Mr. Shymanski earlier denied the report. He acknowledged that officers of the State Control Committee’s Financial Investigation Department had seized $1,700 in cash from him during a brief detention in May. “They attempted to make me provide explanations about the source of the money. I refused to, this is written in the interrogation transcript,” he said.

Mr. Shymanski denied that the money had been given by the US embassy. “This is my own money. They took it away to check whether it is not fake,” he said