Poczobut recovering from surgery, has heart issues

Andrzej Poc­zobut is expe­ri­enc­ing seri­ous health prob­lems, includ­ing hyper­ten­sion and arrhyth­mia, accord­ing to Andże­li­ka Borys, head of the unof­fi­cial Union of Poles in Belarus. Borys shared the update with Newsweek Pol­s­ka fol­low­ing a prison vis­it on Sep­tem­ber 23.

Last month, Poc­zobut under­went minor skin surgery at the prison hos­pi­tal, where he spent a week recov­er­ing. Dur­ing that time, he was report­ed­ly able to gain some weight, Borys said.

While Poc­zobut did not report any addi­tion­al health issues, he is expe­ri­enc­ing vision problems—something Borys not­ed is com­mon among inmates, as eye­sight often dete­ri­o­rates in prison.
“I asked Andrzej if he need­ed any­thing, if I should send him any med­ica­tion. He said no—he is receiv­ing med­ica­tion,” she added.

Ear­li­er, Borys told Rzecz­pospoli­ta that she has been in talks with both War­saw and Min­sk regard­ing Poczobut’s release. She con­firmed that she had sub­mit­ted a for­mal peti­tion to Alak­san­dar Łukašen­ka, urg­ing him to free the jour­nal­ist.

Poc­zobut, a con­trib­u­tor to Gaze­ta Wybor­cza, has been in cus­tody since March 2021. In Feb­ru­ary 2023, Belaru­sian author­i­ties sen­tenced him to eight years in prison on charges of incit­ing hatred and call­ing for sanc­tions that alleged­ly threat­ened nation­al secu­ri­ty. In response, Poland closed the Bobrown­i­ki bor­der check­point, stat­ing that it would remain shut until Poc­zobut is released.