Peftiev goes to law against EU. Lithuanian lawyers defend him

The closest associate of the Belarusian dictator, whose three firms are subject to the EU sanctions, disputes this decision.

Lithuanian law firm LAWIN is to defend Vladimir Peftiev’s interests in four actions against the Council of the EU.

The information about the actions brought by Peftief was published in the official journal of the European Union. Four actions were brought on August 12, 2011: one from Vladimir Peftiev as an individual, three from the companies he co-owns, namely Beltechexport, BT Telecommunications and Sport-Pari, "Yezhenedelnik" writes.

The actions demand the defendant (the Council of the European Union) to annul Council Decision of June 20 2011 concerning restrictive measures against Peftiev’s companies.

The Council took this decision against Peftiev’s companies and a number of Belarusian officials to increase financial pressure on the Belarusian authorities to make them stop repressions against the opposition.

The applicant relies on five pleas in law, one of them saying that "the defendant infringed the right of defence and the right of a fair hearing provided for in Article 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Articles 6 and 13 of the European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms".

Another plea reads that the Council of the EU "infringed the fundamental right to property provided for in Article 17 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and Article 1 of the Protocol No 1 of the European Convention for Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in an unjustified and disproportionate manner without compelling evidence".

The applicant also states that the EU Council "committed manifest errors of assessment in that it held in the contested measures that the applicant is in some way associated with and sponsoring the Lukashenka regime or in some way participating in violation of international electoral standards or crackdown on civil society and democratic opposition, or in the importation into Belarus of equipment which might be used for internal repression".

There’s no information about the proceeding date.

LAWIN firm, which defends the interests of Peftiev, is considered the best law firm in Lithuania and Latvia according to the IFLR1000 ranking.

LAWIN firm is advising the Lithuanian government on constructing a new nuclear power plant and infrastructure. In 2011, the firm consulted the deal of acquiring UAB Lotos Baltija and Lotos Petrobaltic by Geonafta group.