Reporter Poczobut sentenced to eight years in prison

February 8, BPN. The Hrodna Regional Court has sentenced reporter Andrzej Poczobut (Andrej Pačobut) to eight years in prison, state-run media outlets reported.

Judge Dźmitryj Bubienčyk tried him behind closed doors and found him guilty of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions that harmed the national security of Belarus.

The Belarusian Association of Journalists strongly condemned the verdict. “From the very beginning, Andrzej Poczobut’s case looked like a reprisal for the dissent and the long-standing public position of the journalist,” it said. The trial had “nothing to do with justice and is revenge on our colleague,” it added.

Gazeta Wyborcza contributor Poczobut, also known as an activist of the unregistered Union of Poles in Belarus, has been in custody since March 2021.

He was arrested after masked police officers raided his home in Hrodna on March 25.

On the same day, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that it had instituted criminal proceedings against UPB leader Andzelika Borys and “other individuals.”

It said that the criminal case had been opened under Part Three of the Criminal Code’s Article 130, which penalizes incitement to racial, ethnic, religious or other social hatred and “the rehabilitation of Nazism.”

“The individuals, positioning themselves as members of the above mentioned union, have organized and held a number of illegal mass events with the involvement of under-18-year-olds in the city of Hrodna and in other localities in the [Hrodna] region since 2018 with a view to honoring members of anti-Soviet gangs that were active during and after the [1941-1945] Great Patriotic War, committed robberies, murdered Belarus’ civilians, destroyed property. Their actions were aimed at rehabilitating Nazism and justifying the genocide of the Belarusian people,” the Prosecutor General’s Office charged.

Later, prosecutors also accused Poczobut of calling for sanctions.

Poczobut’s trial, which had been postponed several times, opened on January 16. On the same day, the judge ruled to close the proceedings to the public.

Last autumn, Poczobut refused to petition Alaksandr Łukašenka for pardon. The Committee for State Security (KGB) put him on the list of “persons involved in terrorist activities.” Of five defendants in the case, Poczobut is the only one to remain in custody.