Trump credits US envoy for release of prisoners from Belarusian, Russian detention

Gizem Nisa Demir

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that three Polish and two Moldovan nationals had been released from detention in Belarus and Russia following efforts by his administration.

Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that his special envoy John Coale helped secure the releases.

He said Polish President Karol Nawrocki had asked for assistance in securing the release of ​Polish-Belarusian journalist and activist ​Andrzej Poczobut during a meeting last September.

“Today, Poczobut is free due to our efforts,” Trump said.

Trump also thanked Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko “for his cooperation and friendship.”

Coale said on April 28 that he and his team helped secure the release of “three Poles and two Moldovans” through coordination with several countries. He thanked Poland, Moldova, Romania and Lukashenko for their cooperation.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced Poczobut’s release as part of a prisoner swap tied to broader US-backed negotiations between Belarus and the West.

Poczobut, a journalist for Gazeta Wyborcza and a member of Belarus’ Polish minority, had been serving an eight-year sentence after being arrested in 2021 for covering pro-democracy protests.

The case drew international criticism, and he was later awarded the European Union’s Sakharov Prize.

Poland’s Foreign Ministry said the deal involved a multi-country prisoner exchange, including the release of Grzegorz Gawel, a Catholic friar from the Carmelite order in Krakow.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has released hundreds of prisoners in recent years as Washington has begun easing some sanctions on Belarus, which remains largely isolated from the West over alleged human rights abuses and its support for Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.