The court in the western Belarusian city with a large Polish minority also cites the journalist for taking part in an illegal demonstration surrounding the meeting, Polish Radio reported. Mr Poczobut is a Belarusian national and an active member of the local Union of Poles, NGO unrecognised by official Minsk.
Mr Poczobut was fined the equivalent of 148 euro. In journalist’s opinion, “that is a pretty light sentence”. He believes the reason was that Polish and international media took interest in the case.
The reporter of Gazeta Wyborcza lost his official accreditation two weeks ago. A press secretary of the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Mr Poczobut he had insulted the President of Belarus Aliaksandr Lukashenka in a series of articles published last month, Poczobut told the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Mr Poczobut was even given a list of his allegedly “biased” articles. They covered a recent police initiative to enforce the fingerprinting of all male residents; the deportation of three Polish Catholic priests; new criminal lawsuits launched against recently released political prisoners; and talks between Mr Lukashenka and EU officials.
Calling the President “a dictator” and the authorities of Belarus “the regime” must have been the main reason of irritation, the journalist writes in his blog (in Belarusian).
Mr Poczobut also believes the prosecution and harassment he faces recently have something to do with his investigative report on the Belarusian KGB’s activities. Last month, someone cut the leather upholstery of his Hrodna apartment’s door, and stuck in a note that warned the journalist to stop his critical reporting or face retribution, he told CPJ. In the next days, people repeatedly called his family, including his 8-year-old daughter on her mobile phone, asking questions about his whereabouts and not giving their names.
Still, Mr Poczobut is going to continue his activities as a journalist. In his opinion, the independent information is what the regime is mostly afraid of: “Mr Lukashenka said he wanted to have “a dialogue with the EU without mediators”. He probably considers mediators the Belarusians who are seeking for respect of their rights. In one of my articles I wrote about political prisoner Mikalai Autukhovich, about why he is being persecuted. Of course, the authorities don’t want this information in press, they are trying to suffocate freedom of speech in Belarus“, the journalist told the Charter97.
