Belarus upholds eight-year jail sentence for journalist at top Polish newspaper

Journalist Andrzej Poczobut stands in a defendants’ cage during a court session in Grodno, Belarus, in January 2023 (Leonid Shcheglov/Pool via AP/PA)

Belarus’s Supreme Court has upheld an eight-year prison sentence handed to a prominent member of the country’s sizable Polish minority and a correspondent for a top newspaper in Poland.

The decision is seen part of the government’s sweeping, yearslong crackdown on opposition figures, human rights activists and independent reporters.