During the opening of the plenary session, PiS MEP Małgorzata Gosiewska took the floor and called for the nomination of “a symbol of Belarus’s resistance,” Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian journalist who has been imprisoned under strict conditions for three years now.
Gosiewska recalled that before the summer recess she had proposed a resolution on the persecution of political prisoners in Belarus, which—as she stated—“we have yet to see.”
Meanwhile, she reported, 36-year-old Andrei Podniebienny, a political prisoner sentenced to nearly 17 years in a penal colony under inhumane conditions, died at Penal Colony No. 15 in Mogilev. The PiS MEP quoted his mother’s words: “On September 3, my beloved son passed away… My granddaughters have been left without a father. My only consolation is that no one will be able to abuse my son—either physically or mentally—anymore…. I believe that God’s justice will catch up with the guilty party and that no crime will go unpunished.”
The Polish politician pointed out that this is already the ninth death of a political prisoner since 2021.
She emphasized that Andrzej Poczobut—a journalist, columnist, and man of unwavering resolve—has been held for three years now in a similar penal colony where basic human rights are violated. “A symbol of a Belarus that is fighting back,” she stressed.
In the context of the upcoming selection for the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, Małgorzata Gosiewska appealed: “Let’s choose Andrzej Poczobut, who has fully earned this honor through his life, and your vote for his candidacy could save him from death.”
