Polish MFA strongly condemns new wave of repressions in Belarus

In response to disturbing reports from Belarus, the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has expressed deep concern over a renewed wave of widespread searches and arrests targeting former prisoners of conscience and relatives of those currently incarcerated on political grounds.

"We strongly condemn systemic repressions of the Belarusian regime against its own society, including the detention of Maryna Adamovich, the wife of Mikalai Statkevich, a Belarusian opposition activist sentenced to 14 years in prison," the MFA said.

The ministry called the human rights situation in Belarus "aggravating". "The increased pressure of Lukashenko’s regime on the civil society and his political opponents over the past weeks aims to intimidate Belarusians, forcing them into silence or fleeing the country," the statement added.

"Since the rigged presidential election in 2020, thousands of people have been imprisoned and at least 1,400 political prisoners remain in detention. Conditions of detention of the regime’s opponents are an abomination of humanity – the oppositionists serve their sentences in overcrowded cold cells, with limited access to health care and limited contacts with relatives," we read.

The MFA underscored that it "constantly calls on the Minsk authorities to unconditionally release all political prisoners and stop repressions against its own society".