You're reading: Ruling in Belarus president insult trial

GRODNO, Belarus (AP) — The lawyer for a journalist for a top Polish newspaper charged with insulting the authoritarian Belarusian president says he was beaten by officers before being brought into a closed courtroom to make his final statement.

Police were blocking access the courthouse in Grodno in western Belarus where a verdict is expected Tuesday afternoon in the case of Andrzej Poczobut. Poczobut could face three years in prison if convicted.

Several dozen Poczobut supporters gathered outside the court, chanting "freedom!"

Poczobut, the Grodno correspondent for Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza, was arrested in April on charges of writing articles that insulted President Alexander Lukashenko.