English

Warsaw "seriously concerned" about arrest of journalist Andrzej Poczobut

 

Warsaw is seriously concerned about the arrest of Andrzej Poczobut, a Hrodna-based correspondent of the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, said Martin Bosacki, spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry, on Thursday evening, according to gazeta.pl.

The Polish consulate in Hrodna and the Polish embassy in Minsk are closely following developments in his case, said Mr. Bosacki.

The arrest is another evidence of a very poor situation regarding human rights in Belarus, including the rights of the ethnic Polish minority, the spokesman stressed.

Mr. Poczobut was arrested at his home in the city in western Belarus on June 21.

As Mr. Poczobut`s wife, Aksana, told BelaPAN, the journalist was working on an article when officers of a prosecutor`s office, the Investigative Committee and the police arrived at the house. They searched the house and brought Mr. Poczobut first to a prosecutor`s office and then to a pretrial detention center.

The journalist was said to be facing a criminal charge of defaming Alyaksandr Lukashenka in connection with his articles about last year`s subway bombing trial posted on opposition websites charter97.org and belarusparisan.org.

Lawyer Alyaksandr Birylaw has been hired to defend Mr. Poczobut.

The journalist, an ethnic Pole, is already under a suspended prison sentence imposed on him on the same charge.

On July 5, 2011, a district judge in Hrodna sentenced Mr. Poczobut to a three-year prison term with two years` probation, finding him guilty of defaming the head of state.

He was accused of insulting and defaming Mr. Lukashenka in his articles.

As Mr. Poczobut told reporters, defamation was largely found in the fact that he had called Mr. Lukashenka a dictator. // BelaPAN