Overview
- A prisoner swap announced Tuesday between Belarus and Poland brought Poczobut to Poland, where Prime Minister Donald Tusk greeted him at the border.
- U.S. envoy John Coale said three Poles and two Moldovans were freed, while Belarus’s state agency BelTA reported a total exchange of nine people.
- Russia’s FSB said a Russian archaeologist held in Poland was sent home as part of the deal after a Polish court had approved his extradition to Ukraine over alleged illegal digs in Crimea.
- Polish officials said Poczobut looked emaciated and exhausted after years in custody, and he is now undergoing medical checks in Warsaw.
- Poczobut, a Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent and leading voice for Belarus’s Polish minority, was arrested in 2021 and sentenced in 2023 to eight years in a case condemned by rights groups.