Meeting with Andrzej Poczobut – Journalist and Political Prisoner – Friday, October 2, 6:30pm, 177 Kent St.

Andrzej Poczobut – Belarusian journalist, publicist, and opposition activist of the Polish minority, political prisoner. Knight of the Order of the White Eagle. In 1998, he graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Grodno State University named after Yanka Kupala. From 1999 to 2001, he was a law lecturer at the Grodno State Polytechnic College and at the law and business technical school. He then engaged in journalism. He worked, among others, in Grodno newspapers "Pahonia", "Dień", "Miestnoje Wriemia", "Głos znad Niemna" and the nationwide independent daily "Narodnaja Wola". He served as the Editor-in-Chief of the "Polish Magazine in Exile" – a publication of the Union of Poles in Belarus under the direction of Anżelika Orechwo (previously Andżelika Borys). Since 2006, he has been a correspondent for "Gazeta Wyborcza" in Grodno. An active member of the Union of Poles in Belarus since the 1990s. He has always firmly advocated for the full independence of the organization from the authorities in Minsk, but within the framework of Belarusian legislation. He served as the chairman of the Supreme Council of the UPB, which is not recognized by the authorities in Minsk. He is among the opponents of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, whose regime he has repeatedly criticized in his articles. For his social and journalistic activities, he has been repeatedly detained and arrested. He is an expert on issues related to the history of the Soviet special services in Western Belarus and the activities of the Home Army in these areas. In 2026, he was appointed to the Council for Polonia and Poles Abroad at the President of the Republic of Poland.