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Judgment in Poczobut's trial to be pronounced on July 5

The judgment in the closed-door trial of journalist Andrzej Poczobut is to be pronounced on July 5.

At a court session in the Leninski District Court in Hrodna on June 28, Judge Vital Lyatsko heard Mr. Poczobut's defense team, journalist Andrzej Pisalnik told BelaPAN.

"They did not speak much [about what they said in court] as they gave a pledge not to disclose the materials of the case," he said. "However, they told the reporters who had gathered near the courthouse that they had asked for Poczobut's full acquittal - for various reasons, including because procedural rules had been breached during the institution of the criminal case and the investigation against their client."

Mr. Poczobut is to make his final statement and the judgment is to be pronounced on July 5, according to Mr. Pisalnik.

The Hrodna-based correspondent of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza is answering criminal charges of insulting and defaming the president in his articles and may be sentenced to up to four years in prison.

At last week's court session, the public prosecutor demanded that Mr. Poczobut, a Belarusian citizen and ethnic Pole, be sentenced to three years in prison. //BelaPAN