Belarus
No room for dissentPosted Apr 13 2011
A spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton released a statement on April 10 condemning the crackdown on independent media in Belarus. The statement also expressed concern for Andrzej Poczobut, who was detained on his way to meet an EU delegation in Minsk. (AP Photo: Virginia Mayo)
Journalist or citizen, no one is being spared by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government.
The latest journalist to be arrested is Andrzej Poczobut, a correspondent with Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, who faces charges of slandering and insulting the president, according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, a New York Times report examined how ordinary citizens such as construction workers and teachers are being prosecuted Soviet-style in the wake of the Dec. 19 protest that saw thousands rally against President Lukashenko’s fraudulent re-election.
Police searched Poczobut’s house last month, where they confiscated his computer and other belongings. He was detained and charged on April 6. Poczobut had also been jailed for 15 days in February for his coverage of the Dec. 19 rally, according to IPI.
In an interview with The Prague Post, an English newspaper from the Czech Republic, Poczobut said his writings did not constitute an offense and that he did not regret criticizing Lukashenko.
“Belarusian authorities do a lot to make the world forget about what is happening in Belarus,” Poczobut said. “The opening of a criminal case against me by the KGB is a kind of recognition of the quality of my work. The authorities could not respond to my arguments and so they resorted to the use force to shut me up.”
The NYT report also quoted Lukashenko talking about what he would do if Belarus faced Middle-East style uprisings.
“If there arose a real threat of coup in our country, a threat to our 10 million people […] I would not hesitate to use the armed forces,” he said.