Join us for a conversation with Polish-Belarusian dissident Andrzej Poczobut, moderated by Belarusian playwright and activist Andrei Kureichik, followed by a reception.
A journalist, an activist representing the Polish minority in Belarus, Andrzej Poczobut is an expert on the history of the anti-communist underground in the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). Born in the Soviet Union, he earned a law degree from Yanka Kupala State University in Grodno.
He began working for Polish- and Belarusian-language media outlets in 2002. In 2006, he became the Belarus correspondent for the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza. From 2018 to 2021, he co-produced Nad Niemnem, aprogramme broadcast on Poland’s public television channel TVP Polonia.
Poczobut has received numerous prestigious Polish and Belarusian journalism awards, as well as the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize. He has also been awarded the Order of the White Eagle, Poland’s highest state decoration.
The Belarusian authorities have repeatedly persecuted him for his journalistic and civic activities. He is a member of the governing board of the Union of Poles in Belarus, an organization that is not recognized by the Lukashenko regime.
He was arrested in 2021 and subsequently sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of inciting hatred and calling for actions deemed harmful to Belarus’s national security. He was released in a prisoner exchange in 2026.
Presented by CEERES and the Pozen Family Center for Human Rights with support from the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Chicago.