Journalist Andrzej Poczobut exchanged at Belarus-Poland border

State media report­ed that on April 28 at around 2:00 PM, an “oper­a­tion to exchange detained per­sons in a ‘five-for-five’ for­mat” took place at the state bor­der between Belarus and Poland. Accord­ing to them, polit­i­cal pris­on­er and jour­nal­ist Andrzej Poc­zobut was includ­ed in the exchange.

Andrzej Poc­zobut in his first moments after release. April 28, 2026. Belarus–Poland bor­der near the Białowieża For­est. Pho­to: X account of Pol­ish Prime Min­is­ter Don­ald Tusk

Accord­ing to BelTA, the “5x5 pris­on­er exchange” was the “cul­mi­na­tion of a com­plex and lengthy nego­ti­a­tion process between Belarus’s KGB and Poland’s Intel­li­gence Agency, car­ried out under the direct instruc­tion of the Pres­i­dent of Belarus.”

BelTA also empha­sized that Andrzej Poc­zobut, among the five Poles returned to their home­land, was released fol­low­ing a per­son­al appeal to Ali­ak­san­dr Lukashen­ka from the journalist’s impris­oned moth­er and from Anże­li­ka Borys, head of the Union of Poles in Belarus.

Over Five Years of Persecution

On 25 March 2021, at the height of the Belaru­sian-Pol­ish diplo­mat­ic con­flict, mem­bers of the offi­cial­ly dis­graced Union of Poles in Belarus were searched in Hrod­na. The Gen­er­al Pros­e­cu­tor’s office brought a crim­i­nal case for “incite­ment of nation­al and reli­gious hatred.” Among the arrest­ed lead­ers of the orga­ni­za­tion was well-known jour­nal­ist Andrzej Poc­zobut, 49. The Union of Poles in Belarus, as well as the Pol­ish gov­ern­ment, stat­ed that the pros­e­cu­tion was “an act of intim­i­da­tion against the entire Pol­ish minor­i­ty in Belarus.” Fol­low­ing the Poc­zobut ver­dict, Poland closed anoth­er Pol­ish-Belaru­sian bor­der cross­ing, Bobrown­i­ki — Beras­tavit­sa.

Human rights activists rec­og­nized him as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er.

Through­out his impris­on­ment, Poc­zobut was for­bid­den meet­ings with rel­a­tives, his let­ters were cen­sored, and cor­re­spon­dence with his minor son was blocked. The jour­nal­ist’s lawyers remained silent, fear­ing loss of their licens­es.

Background

Andrzej Poc­zobut was born on April 16, 1973, in Via­lika­ja Beras­tavit­sa in the Hrod­na Region. In 1998, he grad­u­at­ed from the Law Fac­ul­ty of Yan­ka Kupala State Uni­ver­si­ty of Hrod­na. Since 2002, he worked in jour­nal­ism for Hrod­na news­pa­pers includ­ing Paho­nia, Dzień, and Głos znad Niem­na, and was a cor­re­spon­dent for the inde­pen­dent news­pa­per Nar­o­d­naya Volya. He served as edi­tor-in-chief of Mag­a­zyn Pol­s­ki na uchodźst­wie, the mag­a­zine of the Union of Poles in Belarus. Since 2006, he was a Belarus cor­re­spon­dent for the major Pol­ish pub­li­ca­tion Gaze­ta Wybor­cza.

Poc­zobut had pre­vi­ous­ly been rec­og­nized as a polit­i­cal pris­on­er. In 2011, he was con­vict­ed of “defama­tion” of Ali­ak­san­dr Lukashen­ka and sen­tenced to 3 years with a 2‑year sus­pen­sion, then released in the court­room.