A prominent Polish-language journalist has been released from prison in Belarus after five years in custody as part of a prisoner exchange, officials said on Tuesday.
“Andrzej Poczobut is free!” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on social media, posting a photo of himself greeting the journalist at the border.
The 53-year-old, a member of the Polish minority in Belarus, had long reported for the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza from the authoritarian-ruled country.
He was arrested in 2021 and remained in detention before being sentenced in July 2023 to eight years in a penal colony in a trial widely seen as politically motivated.
Poland had repeatedly called for his release. Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said he met US envoy John Coale on Monday, who has, since 2025, helped secure the release of groups of political prisoners from Belarus
According to Belarusian state news agency BelTA, a total of nine prisoners were exchanged.
Sikorski described the swap as an example of “excellent” cooperation with the United States, saying it would not have been possible without President Donald Trump.
Separately, Russia’s domestic security service FSB said a Russian archaeologist held in Poland would return home, even though a court in Warsaw had recently ruled that he could be extradited to Ukraine. The state news agency TASS reported the man had been arrested at Ukraine’s request over alleged illegal excavations on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.