Hrodna journalist held 5-day hungry strike in jail

Igor Bancer, a journalist and activist of the Union of Poles, was released from jail in Hrodna on Sunday morning.

He held a dry hungry strike during his five-day arrest and lost eight kilograms, Radio Svaboda reports.

Igor is at home now reading on the Internet how people recover after hungry strikes and doctors’ advice. He hopes to go to the Leninski district court on June 23, when a closed trial over his colleague Andrzej Poczobut, the head of the Union of Poles’ Main Council, will be resumed. Poczobut is tried for his journalistic activity.

Igor Bancer was detained in the morning of June 14 as he was leaving his house to go to the Leninski district court, where the first trial against Poczobut was held. Having spent 24 hours in a detention facility, Igor was guarded to a police department the next day, where judge Ksenia Stasyukevich sentenced him to five days of arrest allegedly for using obscene language.

Igor was placed in a cell with three other men, then two more inmates were added. The journalist expressed his protest to the detention facility chief: firstly, he was on a dry hungry strike, while the others ate and smoked, secondly, the cell was overcrowded with these two new persons. As a result, the journalist was placed in another cell, where he was alone.