Poczobut is accused of “inciting hatred” as well as of calling for sanctions and of conduct detrimental to Belarus, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
The trial is taking place behind closed doors, according to news outlets.
Marek Zaniewski, deputy head of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB), told reporters that Poczobut was “holding up bravely” and was “in combative spirits,” but added that “it’s impossible to be optimistic about the trial.”
‘No justice in Belarusian courts’
Zaniewski said: “There is no justice in Belarusian courts … Every court case ends the same way. People receive sentences of years in prison and penal colonies.”
He added: “Sadly, such is the reality in Belarus at the moment. Political trials are being held all the time.”
He noted that journalists from the biggest independent Belarusian news site TUT.by had gone on trial recently.
Moreover, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Ales Byalyatski has also been put on trial, facing up to 12 years in jail, the Reuters news agency reported.
“These are all political trials,” Zaniewski said.
He added that many more activists were "languishing in detention centres," awaiting trial.
“Usually the courts side totally with the prosecution, sometimes imposing an even heavier sentence than what the prosecutor had called for,” Zaniewski told the PAP news agency.
Poland demands release of Poczobut: deputy FM
Meanwhile, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Piotr Wawrzyk said that the charges against Andrzej Poczobut were “without foundation,” public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Speaking in an interview with Polish Radio on Monday, Wawrzyk added that the charges had been brought "solely because Poczobut is regarded as an enemy of the Belarusian regime."
"Poland demands the release of Andrzej Poczobut,” Wawrzyk said.
Poczobut, a board member of the Union of Poles in Belarus and a noted journalist with the Gazeta Wyborcza daily and public broadcaster TVP Polonia, was detained on March 25, 2021.
He was charged with “incitement to hatred,” including “rehabilitation of Nazism” and later was also accused of calling for sanctions and of conduct detrimental to Belarus, the PAP news agency reported.
According to the Viasna human rights group, the charges are motivated by the fact that Poczobut described the Soviet Union’s 1939 invasion of Poland as an act of aggression, wrote about anti-government protests in Belarus and stood up for the rights of Belarus’ Polish minority.
Poczobut's Union of Poles in Belarus has been banned by the Belarusian regime, the IAR news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, Reuters
Click on the audio player above for a report by Radio Poland's Michał Owczarek.