Polish-Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut has been freed after five years in a Belarusian penal colony as part of a US-brokered multi-country swap deal.
The release comes as part of a broader attempt to bring Belarus closer to the west, after the US secured the release of 123 prisoners including the Nobel peace prize winner Ales Bialiatski and the opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava late last year and removed some sanctions, including on Belarusian potash, a key export.
The release was confirmed by Poland’s Prime Minister, Donald Tusk, who posted a picture of him on social media, saying, “Andrzej Poczobut is free! Welcome to your Polish home, my friend.”
Poczobut, a prominent Polish community activist in Belarus and a journalist for Poland’s newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza, was detained by the Belarusian authorities in 2021. He was sentenced to eight years in a penal colony after a process widely condemned as a politically motivated attempt to silence the regime’s critics.
In recent years, there were growing warnings about his deteriorating health, with a UN-mandated report published last month sounding alarm over “prolonged solitary confinement” and “denial of essential medical care” in the prison he was in.
The Polish leader added that Belarus also released Polish priest Grzegorz Gawel and a Belarusian who helped Polish services, whose name was not to be revealed. Russians and Moldovans were also among the prisoners swapped in a “five for five” exchange.
The release is part of a US-brokered prisoner exchange involving several other countries: Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. Tusk said it followed lengthy diplomatic efforts.
“The exchange at the Polish-Belarusian border is the finale of a two-year-long intricate diplomatic game, full of dramatic twists. It succeeded thanks to the outstanding work of our services, diplomats and prosecutors, as well as the tremendous help from our American, Romanian and Moldovan friends.”
Donald Tusk
The talks with Belarus’s authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, often called were led by the US Special Envoy to Belarus, John Coale, who confirmed that three Poles and two Moldovans were released as part of the swap.
Speaking at a press conference in Warsaw, he said that “basically an argument with Lukashenko is, what are you getting out of this?”
“It hurts you internationally and if Belarus wants to join the family of nations, this kind of things have to stop. If you want to put people into prison for good reason, great, that’s your business, but not for these types of crimes.”
John Coale
Coale thanked Poland, Moldova, and Romania for their invaluable support in this effort, as well as President Lukashenko’s willingness to pursue constructive engagement with the United States. “Under President Trump, America shows up for its allies and delivers diplomatic victories no one else can,” he said.
Coale said that he was planning to go back to Belarus in “two or three weeks” for further talks with the Belarusian regime
“The United States has a lot to do on this issue, there’s 800 to 900 political prisoners left to get out of Belarus, and we haven’t stopped our work at all until we get every last one of them.”
John Coale
European Parliament President, Roberta Metsola responded to Poczobut’s release, saying that it was “wonderful news.” “Very happy to see Sakharov prize laureate Andrzej Poczobut free,” she said.
In 2025, Poczobut was awarded the European parliament’s Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, with the body’s President, Roberta Metsola, hailing him and co-winner Mzia Amaglobeli from Georgia as “two journalists whose courage shines as a beacon for all who refuse to be silenced.” “Both have paid a heavy price for speaking truth to power, becoming symbols of the struggle for freedom and democracy,” she said.
Poczobut’s longtime employer, Gazeta Wyborcza, celebrated the release on its website, saying, “Andrzej Poczobut is finally free! The dictator has released our colleague from the penal colony.”
The newspaper’s Deputy Editor-in-chief, Bartosz Wieliński, posted a picture with Poczobut, captioned, “The first kilometres of freedom. We’re heading to Warsaw.”
Coale Credited For Role In Prisoner Swap
Poland’s President, Karol Nawrocki, credited by Coale for his role in the swap, thanked the US President, Donald Trump, “for bringing out the release of our compatriot.”
Separately, the Foreign Minister, Radosław Sikorski, said that Poczobut’s release was a symbol of Poland’s commitment to look after Poles abroad and to the freedom of the media.
He also praised the US-Polish relationship, stressing the exchange would not have happened without the US involvement, and thanked Trump.
The prisoner swap with Poland saw 10 prisoners released overall, with signs that Belarusian President Alexandr Lukashenko is hoping to improve relations with the West once more. Ties have deteriorated due to his support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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