Polish activist banned from leaving Belarus

Andrzej Poczobut. Photo: PAP

Poczobut has announced that he learnt about the court order from the Belarusian Interior Ministry on Monday.

“I was called in for inspection, and had to provide fingerprints,” the Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent said, adding that he was informed that he was barred from leaving Belarus, and that was not allowed to change his residence without permission from the country’s authorities.

The ban on foreign travel comes the same week as an Eastern Partnership summit in Warsaw, which is to tackle EU relations with the group’s countries, including Belarus.

Poczobut was handed down a three-year suspended sentence earlier this year for allegedly defaming President Lukashenko in a number of articles he had written for the Polish press.

“I expected there to be some restrictions on travelling abroad, that is why I left for Poland before the order came,” said the journalist, who was in Warsaw last week to meet with Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

However, Poczobut has since announced that he will still carry on working as a journalist and that he will still be able to travel throughout Belarus as a reporter. (jb)

Source: PAP