Poland says Belarus summons its charge d'affaires over diplomat's expulsion

Tensions have been running high between the neighbours over a migrant crisis that the European Union and Poland say was engineered by Belarus, a charge Minsk denies. Warsaw also accuses President Alexander Lukashenko's government of oppressing Belarus' small Polish ethnic minority. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms the fact that the charge d'affaires was called in a case related to the expulsion of a Polish consul," spokesman Lukasz Jasina said in a statement. Jasina said the expelled diplomat was the Polish consul in the border city of Brest. The Belarusian foreign ministry said the consul's expulsion is related to the diplomat's efforts to help a Polish citizen, suspected in the death of two people in a road accident, to leave Belarus. It gave no more details on the incident. The Polish citizen was detained by Belarusian border guards on Monday, the ministry's spokesman, Anatoly Glaz, said in a statement. "We have established that the escape attempt was initiated and organised by the employees of the Consulate General of Poland in Brest," Glaz said. "We sincerely hope that this is an isolated case that does not characterise the Polish Foreign Ministry as a whole. At the same time, we do not see an opportunity to continue the work of such a consular officer on the territory of Belarus," he said. Polish officials say they are trying to verify the information.

Belarus government has classified the website of the Union of Poles in Belarus (ZPB) as extremist and placed it on a special watchlist, the ZPB portal informed earlier on Wednesday.

"This decision is meant to intimidate Polish diaspora in Belarus, especially those members who sympathise and stay united with the wrongly imprisoned leaders of the Union of Poles in Belarus - ZPB chief Andżelika Borys and ZPB Board member Andrzej Poczobut," the znadniemna.pl website said.

In March, 2021, Belarusian Prosecutor General launched a criminal case against ZPB members, including Borys and Poczobut, accusing them of "inciting hatred". They are facing 5-12 years in prison.

In April, 2021, an editor from znadniemna.pl Andrzej Pisalnik and his wife moved to Poland.