2024-08-03 06:17:39
To facilitate the largest exchange since the Cold War, Warsaw released journalist Pablo Gonzalez (Pavel Rubtsova), who has been accused of spying for Russia and was detained at the Ukrainian border in February 2022.
The inclusion of González in the exchange deal is confusing to many, as Poland has not secured the release of Andrzej Pochobut, a Polish journalist from Belarus.
Pochobut, a correspondent of Poland’s leading newspaper “Gazeta Wyborcza” and a Polish activist in Belarus, was sentenced in February 2023.
“I would like to confirm that efforts to release other political prisoners, including Andrzej Pochobut, are taking place within the framework of another procedure,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski told reporters on Friday.
The politician of the opposition party “Law and Justice” (PiS), the former minister of the interior, Marjušs Kaminskis, criticized the government for not having received anything in return for the release of the Russian spy.
“Negotiations on the exchange of prisoners between Russia and the West took place for at least a year and a half,” Kaminsky said on the “X” platform, adding that while still in office, he negotiated with US officials about this exchange.
“Our condition for the exchange of prisoners was to hand over to Poland Andrzej Pochobut, who was sentenced to eight years in prison in Belarus,” explained the former minister.
As part of Thursday’s prisoner exchange, German citizen Rico Krieger, who was imprisoned in Belarus, was also released.
On Friday, PiS lawmakers said they had demanded an official explanation from the government about its efforts to secure Pochobut’s release.
Pochobut reported extensively on mass protests against Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko and refused to leave the country after authorities cracked down on the opposition.
The journalist is not receiving the necessary medication in prison and his health is deteriorating, his colleagues have warned.
According to the data of the Belarusian human rights organization “Vyasna”, approximately 1,400 political prisoners are imprisoned in Belarusian prisons.
2024-08-03 06:17:39