Former political prisoner Natalya Podlevskaya has been transferred from Poland to Lithuania under the Dublin Regulation. She had arrived in Poland on a Lithuanian visa and applied for international protection, RFE/RL’s Belarus Service reported.
Podlevskaya, 60, was sentenced in May 2022 to one year in prison on charges of insulting Aleksandr Lukashenko. After her release, she left for Poland on a Lithuanian visa to join her relatives and applied for international protection in September 2024.
According to lawyer Anna Matievskaya, Podlevskaya submitted documents to two administrative offices for foreign affairs in Poland. She was twice denied — in January and April this year — and the authorities decided to transfer her case to Lithuania under the Dublin Regulation.
In June, Podlevskaya filed an appeal against the denials and asked that her case be considered in Poland. She also requested that the Warsaw court suspend the enforcement of the previous decisions. A hearing at the Warsaw court was scheduled for October 24.
On October 22, two days before the hearing, representatives of the Polish Border Guard arrived at Podlevskaya’s residence near Wrocław and detained her for transfer to Lithuania. She was not warned in advance and did not have time to pack her belongings.
On the afternoon of October 23, it became known that Poland had handed Podlevskaya over to Lithuania.
Podlevskaya currently has no lawyer to represent her at tomorrow’s court hearing. Even if the court rules in her favor, she will not be able to return from Lithuania to Poland, as she no longer has a valid visa.