BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

Wednesday, 03 August 2005

Belarus Sentences Ethnic Polish Leader

3 August 2005 (RFE/RL) -- A Belarusian court has reportedly sentenced an ethnic Polish leader to 15 days in jail amid a diplomatic row between Belarus and Poland.

Anzhelika Borys, head of the Union of Poles in Belarus, today said that a court in the western city of Grodno sentenced Union deputy head Wieslaw Kiewlak.

Borys said Kiewlak, who was arrested on Tuesday, was charged in connection with a meeting with a Polish lawmaker.

In recent weeks, Belarus has arrested and tried several members of the Union of Poles in Belarus.

The arrests come amid a series of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between Minsk and Warsaw.

Belarus accuses Poland and the United States of seeking to push Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka out of office.

(AP)

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/08/59a7fc27-a50c-4ea0-ae84-529edcdbaf0d.html