Bolesław Daszkiewicz: I will pay from my own pocket

Yesterday, the deadline for paying a fine imposed on Šalčininkai District Municipality Administrative Director Bolesław Daszkiewicz passed. The fine has been imposed for his noncompliance with the judgement of the court concerning removal of bilingual signboards from domestic premises in the Šalčininkai District. “I have to carry out the court judgment, but I am waiting for a bailiff to determine a way of paying the fine.” – Bolesław Daszkiewicz told zw.lt.

Bolesław Daszkiewicz guaranteed he was not going to evade paying the fine, but he did not have the required sum at his disposal.

“I do not possess millions, nor do I earn thousands, to pay a penalty of 43 thousand litas at once. As my earnings amount to 4 thousand, I am ready to pay the fine in instalments. I am awaiting the decision concerning my case to be reached by a bailiff, or a representative of the government” – stated the director of Šalčininkai local administration, in the conversation with zw.lt.

The Association of Poles in Lithuania had been collecting money for a month, in order to pay the fine. Both the inhabitants of the Vilnius Region, and their fellow countrymen in Poland, gave money as a token of their solidarity and support for the bilingual signboards. Yesterday, the members of the Law and Justice party visiting Lithuania, handed over 30 thousand zlotych coming from membership fees of the party. The leader of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, Waldemar Tomaszewski, donated 10 thousand litas. However, Bolesław Daszkiewicz claims he does not have the right to use that money.

“I cannot take that money and bring it to a bank. I am going to pay the fine from my own salary, but should I need some financial help later on, I will turn to these collections” – explained B. Daszkiewicz.

Meanwhile, the vice-president of the Seimas, and a member of the Electoral Action of Poles in Lithuania, thinks that the situation ought to be sorted out in a different manner. “We are not going to pay the fine. Our aim is to legally regulate the question of the usage of national minorities’ languages in our country” – J. Narkiewicz told Radio Znad Wilii.

Janė Jakimavičienė, a debt collector from Druskininkai, has today announced that she will visit the Šalčininkai District on Monday at the latest, to see whether the bilingual signboards have been removed from private premises.

“If the signboards are still there, I shall prepare an adequate document. Each day of delay in executing the court decision means 1000 litas of additional penalty” – J. Jakimavičienė told Radio Znad Wilii.

Source: http://zw.lt/wilno-wilenszczyzna/boleslaw-daszkiewicz-bede-placil-ale-z-wlasnej-kieszeni/

Tłumaczenie by Agata Weronika Chrobak w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Agata Weronika Chrobak within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.