Andrzej Poczobut faces prison threats

Andrzej Poczobut was officially warned against attending the “unsanctioned action” on March 11.

Gazeta Wyborcza's journalist visited today the corrections department in Hrodna for a weekly check in accordance with the court decision of July 15, 2011.

A police officer handed in an official warning to Andrzej Poczbut that forbids him, “the person given the suspended sentence” to attend the “unsanctioned action scheduled in Hrodna for march 11, 2013”. The journalist was warned he would go to prison if he violated the ban.

“It is not the first warning. On the year's anniversary of the post-election protests – 19 December 2011 – policemen forbade me to take part in any events. I think they just perform someone's order from above. They failed to explain to me what would happen on March 11 and on what occasion,” Andrzej Poczobut said to charter97.org in an interview.

The journalist was sentenced to 3-year-imprisonment suspended for 2 years on July 5, 2011. He was found  guilty of “libel”. On June 21, 2012, Poczobut was arrested again and a new criminal case was opened over “libel against the president”. The reason for prosecution was the journalist's blog posts and articles on the websites charter97.org and Belorusski Partizan.

Andrzej Poczobut was released on his own recognizance on June 30.