Poland demands release of all political prisoners in Belarus

May 21, BPN. Belarusian authorities should stop the crackdown on regime critics, the Polish Foreign Ministry has said in a statement released on the day of solidarity with Belarusian political prisoners.

“Almost 1,500 people are political prisoners in Belarus,” it tweeted. “On today’s Political Prisoner’s Day, we once again call on the authorities in Minsk to release all detainees, including A. Poczobut.”

As of May 21, human rights groups identified at least 1,525 political prisoners in Belarus. One of them is Andrej Pačobut (Andrzej Poczobut), a Polish minority activist and journalist, currently serving an eight-year prison term on charges of inciting hatred and seeking to undermine national security.