Like days in a year – Poland announced sanctions against another 365 Belarusians

Poland announces sanctions against another 365 Belarusian citizens in response to the imprisonment of “Polish journalist and minority rights activist” Andrzej Poczobut in Belarus, the Polish Ministry of the Interior announced today, June 29.

The ministry said in a statement that the Belarusian Supreme Court dismissed Andrzej Poczobut’s appeal, keeping his eight-year prison term upheld. They also point to the persecution of other critics of the regime of the President of Belarus. Alexandra Lukashenko. In this regard, 365 citizens of Belarus, including 159 parliamentarians, were included in the sanctions list of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland. Other deputies of the Belarusian parliament were already on another sanctions list.

Most recently, for example, 76 Belarusian judges, 7 prosecutors, 32 local representatives, 28 law enforcement officers, 23 media workers involved in the dissemination of “government propaganda”, as well as 24 athletes and sports leaders were also registered under sanctions. In addition, the list includes 15 Russians and one citizen of Belarus with ties to Russian capital, and sanctions have been announced against 20 companies. The sanctions also affected those who allegedly organize illegal immigration through Belarus to Poland and the three Baltic republics.

The Polish sanctions list, published at the end of April last year, includes those whom Warsaw considers supporters of “Russian aggression” in Ukraine and responsible for “human rights violations” in Russia and Belarus. Listing usually entails the freezing of the normally non-existent assets of the sanctioned person in Poland and a ban on entry into that country.

Most importantly, in response to the confirmation of the verdict against Poczobut, Warsaw already on Friday closed the entire Polish-Belarusian border for all Belarusian and Russian cargo vehicles.