Poland expels Belarusian diplomat over prominent journalist’s imprisonment

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Poland’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday that a Belarusian diplomat was asked to leave the country amid swelling tensions over the imprisonment of a prominent ethnic Polish journalist in Belarus.

RETALIATING AGAINST AUSTRIA, RUSSIA EXPELS 4 DIPLOMATS

The defense attaché at the Embassy of Belarus was to leave Warsaw very soon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukasz Jasina told Polish new agency PAP. Jasina said the action was taken in response to Belarus recently expelling a Polish border guard liaison officer and two employees of Poland’s consulate in Grodno.

Poland has expelled a Belarusian diplomat as tensions rise over a Polish journalist’s imprisonment by the Russian ally. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Bilateral relations between the neighboring nations were already strained by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s support for Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine. The ties between Belarus and Poland took a new hit this month when a court in Minsk handed an eight-year prison term to Andrzej Poczobut, a well-known correspondent for Polish media.

AUSTRIA’S GOVERNMENT ORDERS 4 RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY

The court convicted Poczobut, 49, on Feb. 8 of harming Belarus’ national security and “inciting discord.” In 2020, Poczobut reported extensively on massive anti-government protests that broke out following Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in a vote that the opposition and Western countries regard as fraudulent.

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The journalist has been in custody since his detention in March 2021. Poland reacted to Poczobut’s sentencing by suspending traffic at the country’s main border crossing with Belarus, in Bobrowniki.