On October 3, the Court of Appeal granted the request of “TranzitServisPlus” and allowed the implementation in Lithuania of the decision of the Economic Court of the Minsk Region dated June 22, 2023, by which the Lithuanian company must pay about 7.4 thousand to the Belarusian customs broker. euro debt.
“The Transit Services Center did not justify that the recognition of the Belarusian court decision and the permission to enforce it in the Republic of Lithuania will violate the principles of benevolence and reciprocity,” the Court of Appeal ruled.
The Lithuanian company told the court, among other things, that it could not participate in the court proceedings because it would pose a security risk – the company’s managers and shareholders could have been forcibly recruited by Belarusian intelligence.
The company submitted to the court an assessment of threats to national security by the Department of State Security and the Second Operational Services Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, stating that the intensified intelligence activities of Belarus at the border pose a threat to the residents of Lithuania, therefore the intelligence urges them not to go to Belarus.
“The activities of the customs broker, carried out by the Transit Service Center, are extremely attractive to Belarusian (and Russian) intelligence. (…) Going to the Belarusian court process would not only have been pointless, but would also have posed a real risk to the Transit Service Center. As a result, the trial in Belarus cannot be considered appropriate or fair,” the Transit Service Center told the court.
According to the ruling, the Court of Appeal relied, among other things, on the conclusion of FNTT received in August of this year that “TranzitServisPlus” and its manager and sole shareholder and beneficiary are not included in the lists of sanctioned companies, moreover, FNTT has no data that the Belarusian company is under control persons subject to European Union sanctions.
In addition, the court noted that the debt was incurred in accordance with the contract dated April 4, 2018 – the parties’ business relations were ongoing and the debt was awarded until the large-scale invasion of Ukraine launched by Russia in February 2022.
“The transit service center, which has been conducting economic and commercial (…) activities in Belarus for a long time and communicated by phone (…) with a Russian citizen who boasted of his military rank and threatened, could (and should) evaluate his business risks and threats, including the fact that (…) all disputes, disagreements or claims under this contract shall be resolved in a Belarusian court applying the laws of Belarus”, the Court of Appeal decided.
The court was also not convinced by the argument of the Transit Service Center that it was not properly informed about the trial held in Belarus, because when it received the letter from the Belarusian court, it was mistaken about its content – it thought that it was sent by “TranzitServisPlius”.
At that time, “TranzitServisPlus” provided data that the Transit Service Center was informed about the court proceedings both by electronic and physical letter, so it should have known about the proceedings.
In addition, according to the Belarusians, in June 2023, the Transit Service Center sent a debt payment notice to the Belarusian company, with which it undertook to cover the debt by paying 300 euros per month.
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