The Nobel Prize winner and the Pole regain their freedom. Andrzej Poczobut does not accept the “proposal”
The list of people “pardoned” by Alyaksandr Lukashenko's regime, announced on Saturday, December 13, 2025, did not include Andrzej Poczobut – an activist of the Polish minority in Belarus and a journalist, imprisoned since 2021. The information was provided by the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maciej Wewiór.
According to a statement from the Belarusian authorities, 123 citizens of various countries were “pardoned”.convicted, among others, for espionage or terrorist activities. As emphasized, such accusations are often used to eliminate people who are inconvenient to the regime from public life, including journalists and oppositionists.
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No decision in the case of Andrzej Poczobut
Among those released are: Nobel Prize winner Alas Bialiatsky, oppositionists Viktar Babaryka and Maria Kalesnikawa, as well as Polish citizen Raman Hałuza. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasizes that it is happy about the release of the Pole and Byalyatsky, but at the same time, it reminds that the Poczobut case remains a priority.
Maciej Wewiór assured that Poland, together with its partners, will not give up on efforts to release Andrzej Poczobut. When asked about reports that Poczobut refused to write a request to Lukashenko, the spokesman emphasized that cannot disclose the details of the negotiations. He noted, however, that “there was also a proposal” for Poczobut, which he did not agree to, which does not change the fact of further efforts on the Polish side.
Andrzej Poczobut was arrested in March 2021, and on February 8, 2023. sentenced to eight years in a maximum-security penal colony for “activities detrimental to the interests of the state.” The allegations cited in the case included, among others: his statements about the USSR's aggression against Poland in 1939 and materials documenting protests in Belarus in 2020. Poczobut is detained in the penal colony in Nowopolotsk.
