{"id":144242,"date":"2025-06-26T19:09:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T16:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/144242\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"polish-minority-leader-calls-for-poczobuts-release","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/144242\/","title":{"rendered":"Polish minority leader calls for Poczobut\u2019s release"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n\n \"\"\n
\n \n <\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

June 26, Pozirk<\/em>. <\/strong>And\u017celika Borys, chairwoman of the unofficial Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB), has urged Belarusian authorities to release Polish minority activist and journalist Andrej Poczobut in her Facebook post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poczobut, a UPB board member and journalist, has never been an opposition activist, she stressed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UPB has about 12,000 members and is supported by Warsaw. It runs Polish language teaching centers in Belarus, takes care of memorial sites and is grateful to the Belarusian authorities for these opportunities, Borys said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Belarusian Polish minority, numbering more than 300,000 people, appreciates good relations and dialogue with Minsk, she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, the UPB reported that activists held a rally in Poland\u2019s Bia\u0142ystok to demand the release of Poczobut, who has been held behind bars in Belarus for 51 months. Marek Zaniewski, UPB deputy chairman, noted the prisoner\u2019s plight, expressing concern over his health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minsk restricts correspondence with Poczobut, while all appeals for his release remain unanswered, he noted. Poczobut\u2019s imprisonment is a form of punishment for his involvement with the Polish minority in Belarus and his work as an independent journalist, Zaniewski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gazeta Wyborcza<\/em> contributor Poczobut has been in custody since March 2021. In February 2023, authorities sentenced him to eight years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions that harmed the national security of Belarus. In response, Poland closed the Bobrowniki checkpoint at the shared border with Belarus, linking its reopening to Poczobut\u2019s release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warsaw also repeatedly urged Minsk to stop facilitating illegal migration on the shared border and cooperate in identifying a suspect in the murder of Mateusz Sitek, a Polish soldier stabbed at the Belarusian-Polish border last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n
\n \"\"