Poland sanctions Belarus after Supreme Court confirms journalist’s sentence

Poland has imposed sanctions on 365 Belarusian citizens with links to the state after the Belarus Supreme Court upheld the eight-year prison sentence for Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist and Polish minority leader.

Last week, the Supreme Court of Belarus rejected Poczobut’s appeal against the sentence for “intentional actions aimed at inciting hostility and hatred on national, religious and social grounds.”

In response, Poland issued a sanctions list, which includes people who “promoted the Belarusian regime and were engaged in legitimising and supporting repressive policy of the authorities in Minsk,” Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński announced on Monday.

Some “are responsible for the politically-motivated sentence against Andrzej Poczobut, passed based on false charges,” he added. The list also features business representatives and people linked to the irregular migration flows to Poland and other Baltic states.

Those featured on the sanctions list were reportedly engaged in court proceedings concerning the participants of anti-government protests, gathering information about protesters, but also using physical and mental violence against the opposition and discriminating against the Polish minority in Belarus, among other things.

According to the Polish decision, those sanctioned will be banned from entering Poland and the whole Schengen zone, while the business people will also have their assets frozen.

Poczobut, 49, is a long-time correspondent for the liberal Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper. He was also an activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB), a Polish minority organisation de-legalised by Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. Poczobut is internationally recognised as a political prisoner, and many countries have appealed for his release.

The Polish sanctions list includes 159 MPs, 76 judges, seven public prosecutors, 32 local administration officials, 28 officers of police and other services, 23 representatives of propagandist media, 24 athletes and sports officials, eight state administration officials and representatives of state companies, and eight people involved in culture and science.

Sanctions were also imposed on 16 representatives of businesses connected to Moscow and persons responsible for orchestrating irregular migration of people from the Middle East and North Africa to Poland and the Baltic countries, the ministry added.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | EURACTIV.pl)