PEN International calls on Belarus to release journalist Poczobut

PEN Inter­na­tion­al, a lit­er­ary and free­dom of expres­sion asso­ci­a­tion, has called for the imme­di­ate release of Pol­ish-Belaru­sian jour­nal­ist Andrzej Poc­zobut (Andrej Pačobut).

Andrzej Poc­zobut dur­ing the tri­al. Pho­to: BelTA

“Poc­zobut, a voice for the silenced, is pay­ing a dev­as­tat­ing price for his unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to truth and jus­tice,” said Urtzi Urru­tikoetx­ea, chair of the association’s lin­guis­tic rights com­mit­tee. “Locked away, deprived of the very free­doms he seeks to pro­tect, his per­se­cu­tion is a chill­ing reminder of the lengths to which the Belaru­sian author­i­ties will go to crush dis­sent.”

PEN Inter­na­tion­al expressed sol­i­dar­i­ty with the jour­nal­ist and all those unjust­ly impris­oned. “No one should be pun­ished for speak­ing out,” Urru­tikoetx­ea stressed.

“Poczobut’s case is emblem­at­ic of the type of oppres­sion expe­ri­enced by writ­ers and jour­nal­ists who speak up for the rights of oppressed minori­ties. PEN Inter­na­tion­al calls for his imme­di­ate release, as well as the pro­vi­sion of ade­quate health­care pend­ing his release,” the state­ment reads.

Poc­zobut, a cor­re­spon­dent for Gaze­ta Wybor­cza and a Pol­ish minor­i­ty activist in Belarus, was sen­tenced to eight years in prison in Feb­ru­ary 2023, prompt­ing Poland to indef­i­nite­ly close one of its bor­der check­points with the coun­try.

Belaru­sian ruler Alak­san­dar Łukašen­ka claimed that War­saw has aban­doned Poc­zobut and that the jour­nal­ist does not wish to go to Poland. Despite this, Pol­ish offi­cials, includ­ing For­eign Min­is­ter Radosław Siko­rs­ki and Pres­i­dent Andrzej Duda, have been work­ing through var­i­ous chan­nels to secure Poczobut’s release.