“Gazeta Wyborcza” journalist detained at Belarusian border

• 10.02.2009, 12:26

A reporter of Polish newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” in Belarus Andrzej Poczobut when he was on his way back from a business trip to Lithuania was stopped at Kamenny Loh border checkpoint on Belarusian-Lithuanian border for about an hour.

Back on February 5, when Andrzej Poczobut went to Lithuania from Belarus, he noticed that Belarusian border guards treated him suspiciously, Radio Racyja informs.

“My appearance on the border caused abnormal reaction immediately. A border guard checked my name in the computer and called her commander. They showed the customs officer that my things should be checked up…,” he said.

When the journalist was travelling in a bus from Lithuania through Kammeny Loh checkpoint, he was detained for personal search.

“I was guarded to an office and said that a decision of the head of Kamenny Loh customs station is expected that a careful personal search should be carried out…”, he confirmed.

Andrzej Poczobut wasn’t explained under which grounds he had been detained for personal search, but the journalist connects this incident with the events which are intensively unfolding around preparation to the congress of the officially unrecognized Union of Poles in Belarus headed by Andzelika Borys.

As we have informed, recently the entrance door of Andrzej Poczobut’s apartment in Hrodna was cut. The unknown intimidate the 8-year-old daughter of the journalist by calling on her mobile phone.