Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut was personally presented with the Sakharov Prize on Wednesday 17 June. The prize, awarded by the European Parliament, was given jointly to him and Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli, while they were both imprisoned (see EUROPE 13774/2).
Sentenced for the last time in 2023 to eight years of hard labour for “undermining Belarus’s national security”, the activist, an opponent of Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, was released on Tuesday 28 April in a prisoner exchange overseen by the United States.
Mr Poczobut praised MEPs’ commitment in a speech devoted to defending Polish minorities in Belarus and denouncing “the blows dealt” to freedom “by new autocrats” across the world.
“It was while I was imprisoned that I learned that actions were being taken in my defence, that you were adopting resolutions concerning political prisoners, and that I had first been nominated and then ultimately awarded the Sakharov Prize”, he said in the European Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg.
“Your actions can soften the behaviour of prison guards, because they send a signal showing that a person, a prisoner, is still remembered, despite the passing years. I thank you all for that”, he continued.
The laureate stressed the total absence of press freedom in Belarus, recalling that journalists Igor Ilyash, Denis Ivashin, Vladimir Yanukevich and Andrei Alexandrov were still being detained.
“Today, all over the world — from Cuba and Venezuela to Afghanistan and Iran, and as far as Tibet and North Korea — people continue to be persecuted for political reasons”, Andrzej Poczobut said. And he added that: “Human rights continue to be violated. The space for freedom is shrinking under the blows dealt by new autocrats”.
The Polish-Belarusian journalist called on Georgian authorities to release his fellow laureate, Mzia Amaghlobeli, a symbol of pro-European resistance in Tbilisi, who has been detained since January 2025. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)