Jailed leader of Poles’ Union Andżelika Borys refuses to ask Lukashenka for mercy
Andżelika Borys, Chairperson of the Union of Poles in Belarus, has been behind bars since late March. She is accused of ‘inciting hostility’ and ‘rehabilitating Nazism’.
As reported earlier, Andżelika Borys’ health significantly deteriorated in prison; the woman is experiencing dental problems as well as a recurrence of chronic diseases.
According to information obtained by Belsat TV Director Agnieszka Romaszewska-Guzy, pro-Lukashenka activist Yury Vaskrasenski sent three letters to Borys. He informs the political prisoner that her name was added to the list of the so called candidates for being pardoned by Lukashenka.
In the summer of 2020, Yury Vaskrasenski was a member of the initiative group for collecting signatures for the wannabe presidential candidate Viktar Babaryka. Amid post-election protests, he was arrested; however, in October, Vaskrasenski was released from custody the next day after Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s visit to the KGB pre-trial detention centre. Soon after the release, Vaskrasenski started writing letters to political prisoners, urging them to ask Lukashenka for clemency.
“As the letter begins with the words ‘With your consent…’, Andżelika asked to report that she never vested Vaskrasenski with any authority,” Romaszewska-Guzy stressed.
A week earlier, there were reports about Vaskrasenski’s attempts to talk Andrzej Poczobut, another imprisoned activist of the Union of Poles, into filing a petition for pardon. He said that he would be seeking Poczobut’s release even if the prisoner failed to address Lukashenka. In turn, Poczobut replied that he did not authorize anyone to act in this way, including Vaskrasenski.
In August, Vaskrasenski handed over a corresponding list including about 100 names to Lukashenka’s administration. On September 13, it became known that Lukashenka granted a pardon to 13 prisoners.
Andżelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut are two of five arrested representatives of the Polish minority; the Belarusian security services apprehended them as part of the so-called Polish case. On June 2, Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that three Polish minority activists from Belarus – Irena Biernacka, Maria Tiszkowska and Anna Paniszewa – arrived in Poland on May 25 ‘as a result of efforts by Polish diplomatic and consular services’. According to our information, the Belarusian authorities made the three women’s return to the country impossible by imposing travel restrictions on them before taking the arrestees to the Belarusian-Polish border.
In the spring of 2021, the Belarusian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case against Andżelika Borys, Chairperson of the Union of Poles in Belarus, and other members of the organisation.
They are charged under Art. 130-3 of the Criminal Code (‘deliberate actions aimed at inciting national and religious hatred according to national, religious, language, other social affiliation, as well as through justifying Nazism, which were committed by a group of persons’). According to them, the Polish activists’ recent aсtivity, i.e. holding some events, is relevant to ‘the rehabilitation of Nazism and justifying the genocide of the Belarusian people’.
On March 25, homes of some members of the Union of Poles in Belarus were raided as part of the criminal case. Belarusian security officers made unexpected visits to Hrodna-based media worker Andrzej Poczobut (he was later arrested and taken to Minsk for interrogation); Maria Tiszkowska, the director of the UPB public school in Vaukavysk; Irena Biernacka, the head of the Lida branch of the Union. The police also came to the Polish public school and the headquarters of the Union of Poles in Hrodna. The search of the office lasted eight hours, from 9 am to 5 pm. Poczobut, Biernacka, Tiszkowska, Borys were taken into custody.
On March 12, Anna Paniszewa, the director of Polish School, was arrested on her way to Belarus from Poland. Shortly before the detention, Paniszewa posted an appeal to the public; she believes that the authorities fabricate the charges, aiming at the liquidation of the school.
