26 August 2003
Brest Regional Court upholds annulment of fine imposed on biologist for photography in Belovezhskaya Pushcha
The Brest Regional Court agreed with a lower court that Georgy Kozulko, a former deputy director general of the Belovezhskaya Pushcha national park, did not act in violation of laws by photographing in the park.
On August 22, the Regional Court upheld the decision by a district court judge in Kamenets that annulled the fine imposed on Mr. Kozulko for visiting the ancient forest. Mr. Kozulko, who holds a kandidat's degree in biology, is known for accusing the Belovezhskaya Pushcha management of commercial logging disguised as cutting down trees hit by beetles. He was stopped in the park on May 11, 2003, as he was bicycling along the main tourist route. In an area where a windstorm had brought down a lot of trees two years before, he ran into Belovezhskaya Pushcha Director General Nikolai Bambiza and Deputy Director General Ivan Batan, who ordered the biologist out of the park. Mr. Kozulko had his camera seized and the film exposed to light.
Afterward, the park management filed a complaint with the district government, accusing Mr. Kozulko of violating environmental regulations by shooting beetle-infested trees without official permission and "collecting data for the press." Mr. Kozulko was fined by an administrative commission of the Kamenets District Executive Committee, but Judge Galina Prikhozhko of the District Court annulled the fine, saying that commission and the park's chief security officer
failed to produce evidence that the park's regulations had been violated.
According to the biologist, a park officer in the presence of the judge threatened to throw him out of the forest if he visited it once again.
The administrative commission then appealed the ruling to the Brest Regional Court, saying that the Belovezhskaya Pushcha regulations banned unauthorized persons from staying on its territory without an official permit.
However, the Regional Court said that the charge sheet against Mr. Kozulko had been drawn up incorrectly and contained no evidence of his wrongdoing. In addition, the regulations that were referred to proved to be without legal force, as they had yet to be entered in the national register of legal acts.
http://brestonline.com/en/news/news456.html