Authorities in Belarus have dropped criminal charges against a prominent Polish minority activist and released her from house arrest.
The Prosecutor-General's Office announced on April 4 that Andzelika Borys, 49, was summoned to Minsk and informed that the criminal investigation against her has been closed due to the “absence of a crime.”
Borys was arrested in March 2021 and accused of inciting interethnic strife and condoning Nazism -- charges that she rejected. She was moved after a year in custody to house arrest due to deteriorating health.
Belarusian authorities shut down the Union of Poles in Belarus, which Borys headed, after accusing Poland of trying to foment an uprising against authoritarian ruler Alyaksandr Lukashenka.
The Polish Foreign Ministry welcomed the exoneration of Borys as “the first good news coming from Minsk in a long time” and voiced hope that it would herald a shift in Belarusian authorities' attitude toward Poles in Belarus.
Polish Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina also called for Minsk to release Andrzej Poczobut, a journalist and top figure in the Union of Poles in Belarus who was also detained in March 2021.
“This is a step in the right direction. We hope that similar decisions will be made in relation to Andrzej Poczobut and other prisoners. We don't forget about you!” Jasina said.
Poczobut, 49, was sentenced in February to eight years in prison on charges of harming Belarus’s national security and “inciting discord.” Poczobut, has been behind bars since his detention.
Poczobut reported extensively on the mass protests that swept Belarus after the August 2020 presidential election, which handed Lukashenka a new term in office. The Belarusian opposition and several Western governments have said the election was rigged and have rejected the official result.
Three other activists detained in March 2021 along with Borys and Paczobut -- Irena Biernacka, Maria Tiszkowska, and Anna Paniszewa -- were released to Poland in June 2021, the Polish Foreign Ministry said at the time.
