By Bartosz T. Wieliński, deputy editor of the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, partner newspaper of Le
Figaro
in the LENA alliance
(Leading European Newspaper Alliance).
On February 8, all the foreign editorial staff of "Gazeta Wyborcza" should have gone to the sordid building of the district court in Grodno, a city of 360,000 inhabitants located in western Belarus.
We should have gone there to show our solidarity and support for our friend Andrzej Poczobut, a long-time Gazeta Wyborcza correspondent in that country.
Andrzej was arrested by the Belarusian KGB two years ago on trumped up charges of promoting Nazism and spreading ethnic hatred.
On February 8, Andrzej's criminal trial ended.
Judge Dmitry Bubenchik, who had already condemned several members of the opposition to severe sentences, delivered a new draconian verdict.
Andrew will have to serve an eight-year sentence in a penal colony, the Belarusian version of the Soviet gulag.
We should have been with him that day.
But we couldn't.
If we had gone to Belarus, we would have been arrested as soon as we crossed the border.
Many of us have already been banned from entering the country.
This is the punishment meted out to journalists who publish the truth about the dictatorship that has reigned in this country since the 1990s. Andrzej, when he wrote for Wyborcza, was sentenced to numerous fines and even spent three months in prison for calling President Alexander Lukashenko a
"dictator"
, which was considered a serious defamation of the head of state.
Andrzej did not want to flee to the West, or even give up journalism.
He saw his job as a mission.
The destinies of Ukraine and Belarus are linked.
If one country regains its freedom, the other will also obtain it.
Bartosz T. Wielinski
The regime tightened the screws, but still tolerated independent journalists and activists.
When in August 2020 Lukashenko rigged the presidential election and Belarusians took to the streets en masse in protest, he decided to bloodily suppress all opponents.
Thousands of people have been arrested.
Hours before KGB agents handcuffed him, Andrzej managed to send us his latest article.
In October 2022, when he was arrested, he was even declared a terrorist.
Apparently, the regime sees journalists as a deadly threat.
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While Andrzej was in the notorious Zhodino prison waiting for the KGB to complete their investigation, Russia invaded Ukraine.
It became clear that the rigged elections and Lukashenko's bloody crackdown on the opposition was just a deliberate prelude to a Russian attack on a neighboring country.
In 2020, Lukashenko saved his head thanks to the help of Vladimir Putin.
To pay off his debt, he gave Russia control of the country and allowed Russian ground forces, air troops and missiles to use Belarusian military bases and installations to attack Ukraine.
Without the control of Belarus, Putin could not have reached kyiv.
Today, when the Western world reads reports of crimes committed by the Russian army in Bucha, Irpin, Izium and Kherson, people tend to forget the sufferings of Belarus.
Unfairly.
The oppression in the country goes beyond a practically totalitarian level.
The number of political prisoners has reached 1,500 and continues to rise.
The sentences handed down after speedy and unfair trials are draconian.
Some prisoners risk the death penalty, while Belarus is the only country in Europe where it is applied.
We don't choose the time in which we live, but we choose how we live in that time.
Andrzej Poczobut
Despite this, the Belarusian people are resisting.
Militants, echoing the actions of partisans of World War II, destroyed railway tracks and train control equipment on a large scale in order to effectively hinder the redeployment of Russian troops to the front line.
In Ukraine, the Kostus Kalinovsky regiment, made up of Belarusian volunteers, is fighting against Russia.
He defends Kyiv and other cities in eastern Ukraine.
Belarusian volunteers hope that once Russia is defeated on Ukrainian soil, they can liberate their country.
Because the destinies of Ukraine and Belarus are linked.
If one country regains its freedom, the other will also obtain it.
There can be no free Belarus without free Ukraine, the freedom of
Andrzej also fights for the freedom of his country.
He follows in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa and Václav Havel.
A year ago, the regime offered him a release from prison on the condition that he humble himself before Lukashenko, go to Poland and never return to Belarus.
Andrzej firmly rejected this offer.
In retaliation, his prison regime was tightened, he was deliberately infected with the coronavirus and deprived of his children's letters.
Andrzej did not flinch.
Fifteen minutes into his trial, the court closes the proceedings and orders the courtroom to empty.
In the meantime, a photographer from the Belarusian national agency managed to take some pictures of Andrzej.
We saw a malnourished man with signs of torture on his face.
This is the price that
"
We don't choose the times we live in, but we choose how we live in those times
,
"
he wrote in one of the secret messages smuggled out of prison.
Andrzej shows the power of those who have none.
It inspires resistance.
It shows what it means to be a journalist in times of oppression.
The price he pays for this is heavy.
We were unable to attend the trial of Andrzej Poczobut in Grodno.
However, not a day goes by that we don't remind the world of it.
We expect the regime that dictated the draconian sentence in court to treat him just as bestially when he arrives in the penal colony to serve his sentence.
While admiring the heroic defense of Ukraine, we must not forget Belarus which is fighting against the dictatorship and its heroes.
One of them is our friend and journalist, Andrzej Poczobut.
Members of the LENA DR Alliance