Andrzej Poczobut to Return to Belarus for Permanent Residence in December

Reform.news Editorial Team · 27 October 2026, 08:44

https://reform.news/en/andrzej-poczobut-to-return-to-belarus-for-permanent-residence-in-december/

Andrzej Poczobut told the newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” that he would return to Belarus in December. The journalist also spoke about a visit by a Belarusian police officer to his home in Hrodna when he visited the country in September.

Andrzej Poczobut was released from a Belarusian prison in April. In September, he visited Belarus for a week before returning to Poland. Now, in an interview with “Rzeczpospolita,” he has said that he intends to stay in Belarus permanently.

“That was the decision from the very beginning. I have been saying this all along. I am returning to Belarus in December,” he said. “Of course, my family would like me to stay in Poland. My parents, too. At the same time, they understand my reasons and know that this is just the kind of person I am.”

In the interview, Andrzej Poczobut spoke about his trip in September. His first destination was Hrodna, where his home is located.

“There are no acquaintances around. Never before had I walked through the city center without meeting a single person I knew. But that is exactly what happened this time. When I finally saw someone I knew, he was very surprised to see me there. I was surprised to meet him, too, because by then I had already grown accustomed to not seeing anyone I knew. To that emptiness,” he said.

According to him, “today it is easier to run into people you know from Hrodna or Minsk on the streets of Białystok, Warsaw and even Vilnius.”

Poczobut also spoke about a visit by a representative of the Belarusian security forces to his apartment in Hrodna.

“It happened immediately after I arrived. A police officer came to our apartment with his body camera switched on. Everything was official. Where I work, how long I would be staying in Belarus. I replied that I had only just arrived. I did not want to answer the questions. In situations like that, I generally try to say as little as possible. He left, then came back and said that I had to report to the police station on Thursday. He asked whether I would come. I replied, ‘Of course.’ I am a person who respects the law, despite what their documents say about me,” the journalist said.

The following day, he received a phone call informing him that he did not need to report to the police station after all.

The journalist also spoke about what he is prohibited from doing in Belarus.

“I am not allowed to have a mobile phone. As an extremist and a terrorist, I am not allowed to own one. First, I went to transfer an old number into my name; it had been registered under my wife’s name. They transferred it, but after three calls, the number stopped working. I went to find out what had happened and learned that I was not entitled to have it,” he said.