Following the Andrzej Poczobut ruling, Poland’s interior Ministry has announced new sanctions against 365 Belarusians, including more than 150 lawmakers, and suspended their access to the Schengen Zone as well as barring border traffic for trucks registered in Belarus and Russia. The ministry has also stated that the sanctioned individuals’ assets will be frozen.
The move was in response to the upholding of the verdict in the case of Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian journalist, who was given an eight-year prison sentence for reporting critically on President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime. The Polish reaction has meant that the only operational road border between Poland and Belarus, at Kukuryki, is now shut indefinitely to Russian and Belarussian trucks.
The sanctions will cover those responsible for organising illegal migration to Poland and the Baltic states, the ministry said. Poland accuses Belarus of orchestrating the influx of migrants towards Poland and has erected a steel wall along the border to deter irregular crossings.
