Activist Of Union Of Poles In Belarus Being Searched In Grodno - Viasna Rights Center

Activist of Union of Poles in Belarus Being Searched in Grodno - Viasna Rights Center

The unregistered Viasna human rights center says Andrzej Poczobut, an activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB) not recognized by the Belarusian authorities, is being searched in Grodno, as part of a criminal case on incitement to hatred

MINSK (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th March, 2021) The unregistered Viasna human rights center says Andrzej Poczobut, an activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB) not recognized by the Belarusian authorities, is being searched in Grodno, as part of a criminal case on incitement to hatred.

According to a Thursday statement on the Viasna website, Poczobut's wife told the human rights center that "a search is underway at their home" in Grodno.

On Tuesday, ZPB leader Andzelika Borys was detained in Belarus and was later sentenced to 15 days in custody for violating rules for organizing mass events.

On Thursday, the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus opened a criminal case against Borys and several other individuals for deliberate actions aimed at inciting ethnic hatred and for rehabilitation of Nazism.

According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the individuals who have been presenting themselves as ZPB members have held several illegal mass events with the participation of minors in Grodno and other Belarusian cities, attracting minors to honor the participants of anti-Soviet gangs that acted during and after World War II, committing robberies and murders of the civilian population in Belarus.

Earlier this month, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry asked the Polish consul in Brest, Jerzy Timofeyuk, to leave the country because of his participation in an unofficial event dedicated to the "cursed soldiers."

"Cursed soldiers," also known as "doomed soldiers," is a term describing various anti-Soviet and anti-Communist Polish movements that were formed in the later stages of World War II and in its aftermath.

Poland expelled two Belarusian consuls in response to the Minsk decision to expel Timofeyuk.