Polish journalist Andrzej Poczobut returned to Belarus; Trump's special envoy plans a visit to Minsk; customs officer sentenced to 16 years

Author, News Department

Place of work, BBC Russian Service

Published 2 minutes ago

Reading time: 3 min

Released Polish journalist Andrzej Poczobut returned to Belarus again; Donald Trump's special envoy John Cole plans to visit Minsk on September 14; a customs officer was sentenced to 16 years on several political charges.

The BBC Russian service talks about the main things in Belarus for the week.

Journalist and activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus Andrzej Poczobut, released from a Belarusian prison in April this year, returned back to Belarus.

Polish and Belarusian media reported this on September 8, and the next day Poczobut himself published a post on Facebook, where he talked about visiting the office of the Union of Poles in Belarus in Grodno.

“There are many emotions, many stories about how people survived and survived during the wave of repression in 2021–2023, which then hit our organization,” he wrote.

It was previously reported that Pochobut would stay in Belarus for about a week. Among other things, he plans to meet with his family.

After Poczobut’s return to Belarus, the Polish website Centrum Europy TVP wrote that the Belarusian authorities could legalize the Union of Poles in Belarus, which has been operating for a long time without official registration.

Former Polish Ambassador to Belarus Mariusz Maszkiewicz said that Poczobut could have received “a certain kind of immunity” thanks to negotiations between the Donald Trump administration and Alexander Lukashenko. At the same time, the diplomat does not rule out that Pochobut could be deprived of his freedom again.

Commenting on the return of Andrzej Poczobut to Belarus, the leader of the democratic forces Svetlana Tikhanovskaya recalled that repressions in the country continue.

“The main thing today is that he is safe. And I hope he can leave just as freely.”

Let us remind you that Poczobut was released in April 2026 as part of a prisoner exchange between Poland and Belarus. In 2023, he was sentenced to eight years in prison on two counts, including inciting hatred. After his return, he was met at the border by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

John Cole plans to come to Belarus on September 14

Donald Trump's special envoy John Cole plans to visit Belarus again on September 14 to seek the release of political prisoners.

American journalist Alex Raufoglu reported this in his X, citing two sources.

At the end of August, John Cole himself said that he might come to Minsk in September to “achieve the release of even more political prisoners.”

“We achieved the release of five hundred [political prisoners], then about two hundred more were pardoned. So the real figure is approximately 700-800 people. I hope to soon bring it to a thousand,” he said in a comment to Voice of America (the publication is included in the Russian Federation’s register of “foreign agents”).

Lukashenko met with John Cole several times, after these meetings political prisoners were released. The last major release occurred in March of this year - then 250 people were released.

A Belarusian customs officer was sentenced to 16 years on political charges.

26-year-old employee of the State Committee for Forensic Expertise and Operational Customs Pyotr Osipenko was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security colony, write the Nasha Niva publication and the Viasna human rights center.

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