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Five members of Polish minority in Belarus charged: reports

02.04.2021 17:28
The head of the Association of Poles in Belarus and a senior member of the group were on Friday charged as part of a criminal investigation into "inciting hatred", a website reported.
Andżelika Borys, pictured in 2018.
Andżelika Borys, pictured in 2018. Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak

The znadniemna.pl site cited sources close to the detained pair, Andżelika Borys and Irena Biernacka.

Charges against two other senior detained members of the association, Andrzej Poczobut and Maria Tiszkowska, were brought on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.

It added that Belarusian prosecutors view activities in which the group was engaged as the "rehabilitation of Nazism," which carries a potential jail sentence of up to 12 years.

The cases come after the Polish minority in Belarus commemorated Poland’s post-World War II anticommunist resistance fighters, according to public broadcaster Polish Radio.

Meanwhile, another Polish woman in Belarus faces a case along similar lines, the PAP agency reported.

Poland-based TV news channel Belsat reported that the woman, Anna Paniszewa, was charged on Wednesday.

A senior official in Warsaw has said that many Polish families in Belarus live in fear, worried about themselves and their loved ones.

Jan Dziedziczak, the Warsaw government's pointman for issues affecting Polish communities abroad, told the Nasz Dziennik daily: "The situation is all the more tragic since the only reason for their arrest was that they are Poles."

He added: "The authoritarian administration [in Belarus] is making false and absurd charges against them. In this situation, anyone can be accused and arrested."

The detentions of members of the Polish minority in Belarus have caused an outcry in Poland, which is seeking to build international pressure for their release.

The Association of Poles in Belarus is the largest Polish organization in that country.

(pk)

Source: PAP