No hearing on first day of Poczobut trial

The first day of the trial of Belarusian-Polish journalist and Polish minority activist Andrzej Poczobut on Tuesday before a court in Grodno, Belarus, closed without a hearing, and no further trial date has been announced.

The trial, in which Poczobut is charged with "instigating hatred on religious and national grounds and rehabilitating Nazism," began on Monday.

According to PAP sources, the trial was not continued on Tuesday, and there is also no information about further hearings.

Poczobut, a well-known journalist in Belarus and a long-time correspondent for Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper, is also an activist for the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB), a Polish minority organisation that has been delegalised by the Belarusian authorities.

Poczobut was arrested on March 25, 2021 and has since been incarcerated in a Belarusian prison.