Andrzej POCZOBUT

A board member of the Union of Poles in Belarus, Andrzej Poczobut continued to be held in solitary confinement, serving an eight-year prison term in connection with his coverage of 2020 anti-government protests in Belarus, statements he made in support of the Polish minority in Belarus, and his labelling of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939 as an act of ‘aggression’. He was reportedly still being denied access to life-saving heart medication. 

Initially detained on 25 March 2021 in Hrodna, western Belarus, after the Union’s offices throughout the country were searched, he was taken to a detention centre in Minsk and charged with inciting hatred under Article 130.3 of the Belarusian Criminal Code. Poczobut was subsequently also charged with encouraging sanctions aimed at harming the national security of Belarus (Article 361.3 of the Criminal Code). Found guilty and sentenced to eight years in a medium-security penal colony on 8 February 2023, his sentence was upheld on appeal on 26 May 2023 (see Case List 2023/2024 and 2022).  

Born on 16 April 1973, Andrzej Poczobut is an essayist, journalist, columnist, blogger, poet, and musician. He is a correspondent of Gazeta Wyborcza – a Polish daily newspaper – and works for several Belarusian media outlets. His book System Białoruś (System Belarus), published in 2013, explores Aliaksandr Lukašenka’s grip on Belarus. Poczobut is a prominent Polish-Belarusian minority activist and holds dual citizenship. The Polish authorities have repeatedly called for his release.