Andrzej Poczobut

Affiliated media: Gazeta Wyborcza, Freelance journalist

Incident date: February 8, 2023

Attack type:

• Court trial

Who attacked: Authorities

Source: Belarusian Association of Journalists

Location: Belarus, Hrodna

Additional information:

Andrzej Poczobut, journalist and a member of the Union of Poles of Belarus, unrecognised by the Belarusian authorities, was sentenced to 8 years in a reinforced regime colony. The sentence was passed by the judge of the Hrodna Regional Court Dzmitry Bubenchyk. The trial began on January 16 and was held in closed mode. Poczobut was found guilty under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus: incitement of hatred or discord (Article 130) and calls for actions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus (Article 361). The prosecution materials state that the journalist called the Soviet attack on Poland in 1939 an aggression. He was also prosecuted for statements in defence of the Polish minority in Belarus, articles in Gazeta Wyborcza about the Belarusian protests in 2020 and a text in Magazyn Polski, written in 2006 and dedicated to one of the commanders of the Polish anti-communist underground in the Hrodna Region.