Polish journalist in Belarus trial postponed, no new date set

The trial of Belarusian-Polish journalist and Polish minority activist Andrzej Poczobut will not begin on November 28 as planned, the Belarusian Journalists' Association (BAZ) said on Wednesday.

BAZ said the district court in Grodno, which is to hear the case, has set no new date for the trial.

November 28 as the probable date of the trial was announced last week by the Wiasna human rights centre in Belarus.

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 body that has been delegalized by the Belarusian authorities.

Poczobut was arrested on March 25, 2021, on charges of "instigating hatred on religious and national grounds," and "rehabilitating Nazism," and remains in prison. Arrested on the same day were ZPB leader Andzelika Borys and several other members of the organisation.

Borys was released in March, 2022, but may still face charges.

The imprisonment of Poczobut and the remaining ZPB members raised hefty protests from human rights organisations and the international community, including the Polish government, who said the arrests were politically motivated.