Journalist Andrei Pachobut penalized with Br500K fine

Andrei Pachobut, a journalist with the Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a prominent activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus, has been fined with Br525,000 for taking part in an unauthorized picket that allegedly took place on January 17, 2009. The ruling was handed down by Justice Natallia Kozel at Hrodna's Leninski District Court. On January 17, 2009 dozens of supporters of Anzhalika Borys, the leader of the unofficial Polish minority union, came to the Polish House in order to attend the meeting of the council organized by Joseff Luchnik, the chairman of the pro-governmental Union of Poles. They were denied entrance into the building.