{"id":99255,"date":"2024-08-06T13:12:43","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T10:12:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/99255\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T20:10:49","slug":"warsaw-working-its-way-toward-release-of-poczobut-interior-minister","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/pozirk.online\/en\/news\/99255\/","title":{"rendered":"Warsaw working its way toward release of Poczobut – interior minister"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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August 6, Pozirk<\/em>.<\/strong> Poland is looking for “the most favorable way” to secure the release of journalist Andrzej Poczobut (Andrej Pa\u010dobut) held in a Belarusian prison, Polish Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak has told TVN24<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The official commented on the recent US-Russia prisoner swap and noted that Poczobut’s release is negotiated separately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Polish Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski is also involved in the talks along with diplomats and secret services, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Publicity around Poczobut’s case does not increase his chances of coming home, Siemoniak said, pledging to secure the release of the journalist and other Polish nationals imprisoned in Belarus and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In February 2023, authorities sentenced Pa\u010dobut to eight years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions that harmed the national security of Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 hopes for cooperation from Minsk in identifying a suspect in the murder of Mateusz Sitek, a Polish serviceman stabbed at the Belarusian-Polish border several weeks ago, Siemoniak added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are reasons to believe that in this case, Belarusian authorities may consider the moral side of the issue and hand over the suspect to Poland, he noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, Warsaw said that it expected Minsk to take the first step to restore good-neighborly relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gazeta Wyborcza<\/em> contributor Pa\u010dobut, also known as an activist of the unregistered Union of Poles in Belarus (UPB), has been in custody since March 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was arrested after masked police officers raided his home in Hrodna on March 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the same day, the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office announced that it had instituted criminal proceedings against UPB leader Andzelika Borys and \u201cother individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It said that the criminal case had been opened under Part Three of the Criminal Code\u2019s Article 130, which penalizes incitement to racial, ethnic, religious or other social hatred and \u201cthe rehabilitation of Nazism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe individuals, positioning themselves as members of the above mentioned union, have organized and held a number of illegal mass events with the involvement of under-18-year-olds in the city of Hrodna and in other localities in the [Hrodna] region since 2018 with a view to honoring members of anti-Soviet gangs that were active during and after the [1941-1945] Great Patriotic War, committed robberies, murdered Belarus\u2019 civilians, destroyed property. Their actions were aimed at rehabilitating Nazism and justifying the genocide of the Belarusian people,\u201d the Prosecutor General\u2019s Office charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, prosecutors also accused Pa\u010dobut of calling for sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, Pa\u010dobut refused to petition \u0141uka\u0161enka for pardon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Committee for State Security (KGB) put him on the list of \u201cpersons involved in terrorist activities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of five defendants in the case, Pa\u010dobut is the only one to remain in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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"I will decide my own fate." \u0141atu\u0161ka comments on proposal to swap him for Poczobut<\/h3>\n
August 4, Pozirk. "The regime must understand that I will decide my own fate. At the same time, I am grateful to the Polish government for its principled position then and now," the leader of the Warsaw-based National Anti-Crisis Management …<\/div>\n \n