Polish journalist rejects Belarus president's pardon, remains in custody

Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist for the international channel of Poland’s public television Polonia and an activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus, has declined a pardon offered by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Polish TV channel TVN24 reports, citing the Polish Foreign Ministry.

“There was also a proposal [for a pardon] regarding Andrzej Poczobut. He did not accept it, which does not mean that we, together with our partners, are not working on securing his release,” said Polish MFA spokesperson Maciej Wewiór, as quoted by the channel.

Poczobut, who has been in custody since March 25, 2021, was sentenced to eight years in a high-security prison colony in Belarus. He was convicted of calling for actions that threatened Belarus’s national security (Article 361 of the Criminal Code) and of inciting enmity (Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code).

The journalist is recognised internationally for his opposition to the authoritarian regime of Alexander Lukashenko. In 2025, he was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in acknowledgement of his work defending human rights and political freedoms in Belarus.

By Khagan Isayev