TALLINN, Estonia — A famous Polish minority activist was released from custody in Belarus on Tuesday after authorities dropped criminal charges against her after a two-year criminal investigation, officials said.
The prosecutor’s office in the country stated that the criminal investigation into Andzelika Borys, 49, had been ended, all charges against her had been dropped, and she had been released from house arrest.
Borys was apprehended in March 2021 and placed under house arrest after a year due to deteriorating health. She was charged with inciting interethnic strife and supporting Nazism, which she denied.
The prosecutors’ action came after Belarus’ authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Friday that Borys had indicated a desire to remain in the country. “She’s a Pole,” he explained, “but she’s my Pole.”
Belarusian officials closed the Union of Poles.
The country has a population of 9.5 million, with approximately 300,000 Poles. Belarusian officials closed the Union of Poles, which Borys led, after accusing Poland of attempting to incite an uprising against Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet country with an iron fist for nearly 29 years.
The Polish Foreign Ministry hailed Borys’ pardon as “the first good news to come from Minsk in a long time” and expressed optimism that it would signal a shift in Belarusian authorities’ attitude toward Poles in Belarus, as well as their willingness to engage in constructive discourse.
Andrzej Poczobut, 49, was sentenced to eight years in February on charges of endangering Belarus’ national security and inciting discord. Poczobut, a journalist for the powerful Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza and a top figure in Belarus’ Union of Poles, has been imprisoned since March 2021.
Poczobut wrote extensively about the mass demonstrations that swept Belarus after a presidential election in August 2020 that gave Lukashenko a new term but was deemed rigged by the opposition and the West.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina reiterated the Polish Foreign Ministry’s call for Minsk to release Poczobut and drop all charges against him, adding that “this issue remains our highest priority.”
SOURCE – (AP)
