MFA statement on first anniversary of Andrzej Poczobut’s conviction
08.02.2024
Today marks one year since Andrzej Poczobut, the deputy chairman of the Union of Poles in Belarus and an independent representative of Belarusian journalistic circles, was sentenced to eight years of imprisonment. His release remains a priority for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland objects strongly to the use of Poles in Belarus as hostages of the Minsk authorities and reiterates its call to immediately and unconditionally release Andrzej Poczobut and other political prisoners and exonerate them. Arrested in March 2021 and sentenced in a show trial on 8 February 2023, Poczobut has become a symbol of unprecedented repression as well as the fight for the right to cultivate ancestors’ traditions, learn the Polish language, protect memorial sites, and cherish the common historical heritage of Poland and Belarus. His case is evidence to Minsk’s unequivocally confrontational attitude and indicates the Belarusian authorities’ willingness to further damage the mutual relations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs strongly urges the Belarusian authorities to respect international law and bilateral agreements as regards the protection of the rights of national minorities.
The repression to which the regime subjected its own citizens after the rigged elections in August 2020 has been intensifying. At present, thousands of innocent people are being held in Belarusian prisons and detention facilities, with more than 1,400 of them considered to be political prisoners. The violence of Lukashenko’s regime led to a wave of exile in 2020–2023, as thousands of Belarusians were forced to flee their homeland to seek refuge in other countries, mainly in Poland. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands that all political prisoners be released and exonerated and that repression in Belarus be stopped immediately.