The Polish government’s move was announced by Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński on Friday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Kamiński said in a tweet: “Due to the upholding of the draconian sentence against Andrzej Poczobut, on Monday I will announce a decision to extend the list of sanctioned individuals to hundreds of officials in the Lukashenko regime, who are responsible for political repression, including repression against Poles living in Belarus.”
In February, a court in the western Belarusian city of Grodno sentenced Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist, to eight years in “a maximum security penal colony” in what was widely seen as a politically motivated case, news outlets reported at the time.
Poczobut was found guilty of "fomenting hatred" and "acting to the detriment of Belarus."
He appealed against the verdict and the case went to Belarus’ Supreme Court, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
On Friday, after a behind-closed-doors hearing, which took place without Poczobut’s presence, the Belarusian Supreme Court rejected the appeal and upheld the original verdict, which is now final, officials announced.
In February, when the Grodno court handed Poczobut the original eight-year sentence, Poland’s interior minister instructed his staff to prepare documents for the sanctioning of “more officials in the regime of Alexander Lukashenko, who are responsible for repression against Polish people in Belarus,” the PAP news agency reported.
Also on Friday, Poland’s Interior Ministry said it would suspend “until further notice” all freight traffic through the border with Belarus for trucks, tractor trailers and trailers registered in Belarus and Russia, according to PAP.
Meanwhile, Poland’s foreign ministry said in a tweet on Friday: “Upholding the sentence of 8 years in prison for Andrzej Poczobut clearly shows the ill-will of the Belarusian authorities regarding representatives of the Polish national minority in Belarus.”
The ministry added: “We continue to call for the release of all political prisoners and an end to repression.”
Belarus imprisons Andrzej Poczobut
Poczobut, a journalist and campaigner with the Union of Poles of Belarus (ZPB), a diaspora organisation that has been outlawed by the regime of Belarusian strongman leader Alexander Lukashenko, was arrested in March 2021, the PAP news agency reported.
Earlier, Minsk had put him on a list of “people involved in terrorist activity,” for referring to the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland as “aggression,” writing articles about anti-Lukashenko protests and standing up for the Polish community in Belarus, among other “crimes,” according to Belarusian opposition human-rights groups.
The Belarusian court found Poczobut guilty of “calling for sanctions and other measures detrimental to Belarus” in media outlets and online, as well as “carrying out activities designed to foment ethnically, religiously and socially motivated enmity and hatred.”
In February, a day after the Belarusian court issued the original eight-year sentence against Poczobut, Poland moved to close the Polish-Belarusian border crossing in Bobrowniki, one of the main crossing points between the two countries, “in the interest of national security," the PAP news agency reported.
Poland then introduced further restrictions on freight traffic through the border with Belarus, according to news outlets.
Poland’s interior ministry said that “if Andrzej Poczobut is released, the crossings will be reopened,” the PAP news agency reported.
Poland has been an important refuge for opponents of Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, and Warsaw has become one of Kyiv's most steadfast supporters since Belarus' main ally Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, the Reuters news agency has reported.
Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, launching the largest military campaign in Europe since World War II.
Friday is day 457 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, rp.pl