Released Polish journalist tells of torture during detention in Belarus

Three Polish nationals detained in Belarus have been released, with two of them – including an award-winning journalist – saying they faced torture at the hands of the security services.

Of four Poles arrested in the country, one remains in custody, reports Polish broadcaster TVN this morning. Journalists from Polish-based Belarusian broadcaster Belsat have also reportedly been attacked and detained.

“They gathered about 300 people on a police basketball court, beat us, made us kneel for five hours with our hands bound behind our backs,” said Witold Dobrowolski, a photojournalist who earlier this year won the prestigious Grand Press Photo award for his reporting from protests in Hong Kong.

“It was a nightmare that lasted 15 hours,” added Dobrowolski (who as well as working as a journalist has also been a far-right activist and written for a Polish radical-nationalist publication). Overall, he remained in detention for 72 hours, from which he emerged with a visible black eye.

“In Hong Kong or Beirut there are no problems with journalists, but here a hunt for journalists is taking place,” he told TVN24. There have been reports of Belarusian authorities rounding up foreign journalists from hotels.

A second Pole, student Kacper Sienicki, confirms that he too faced violence at the hands of OMON, a branch of the police force used to suppress protests.

“Even before entering the police van we were beaten,” Sienicki told TVN24. After being transported to a gym, the “torture began”, he says: “kicking, beating, interrogating and other very unpleasant things.”

As well as Dobrowolski and Sienicki, a third, unnamed Pole, who had come to Belarus to visit his girlfriend has been released, reports TVN24. A fourth Pole, also unnamed, remains in detention. Polish diplomats have been seeking his release.

During protests following Sunday’s presidential election – at which authoritarian ruler Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory amid evidence of vote rigging – the security services have detained thousands of people.

Among them have been 68 journalists and media workers, according to the Belarusian Association of Journalists, which also notes 29 other cases of violence against journalists.

Amnesty International has condemned the treatment of journalists in Belarus, as well as noting the “mounting evidence of a campaign of widespread torture of peaceful protesters”, including beatings and threats of rape.

“Journalists are being attacked for exposing the crimes committed by the Belarusian authorities against their own people, in a blatant violation of the right to freedom of expression,” says Amnesty’s Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Marie Struthers.

“It is horrifying to see the lengths to which the government will go to suppress this information – attacking reporters with batons and rubber bullets, destroying their equipment, and throwing dozens in jail,” adds Struthers.

On Monday morning, the Polish foreign minister, Jacek Czaputowicz, announced that Poland “cannot recognise [the Belarusian elections] as meeting democratic standards” and expressed “great concern” at the treatment of protesters.

On Wednesday, the Senate, the upper house of Poland’s parliament, unanimously adopted a resolution calling on Minsk to “enter into dialogue with its citizens and respect minority rights, stop repression and immediately release all those detained in connection with the election”.

Today it was joined by the lower-house Sejm, which passed a resolution “condemning the use of brutal violence and mass repression by the authorities of Alexander Lukashenko against Belarusian society and the falsification of the results of the presidential election”.

Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, also today jointly called with his Czech counterpart, Andrej Babiš, for the election to be “repeated in the presence of international observers”.

Morawiecki has called for an urgent European Council summit on the situation in Belarus. EU foreign ministers are set to meet today to discuss targeted sanctions against Minsk.

This article has been updated to make note of Witold Dobrowolski’s far-right activism.

Main image credit: Jedrzej Nowicki / Agencja Gazeta

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.