The Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw has dismissed an appeal in the case of Belarusian journalist Alyaksandr Burakou, who was trying to find out why he had been banned from entering the Schengen area.
The court’s decision was issued in early March. Burakou’s lawyer has sent the court a request for a written justification of the ruling, the Belarusian Association of Journalists reports.
“The previous letter from the lawyer concerned the final court hearing held behind closed doors, because of which the essence of the case will remain secret. Now we have a ruling that somewhat puzzled even the law firm. The ruling is one word: ‘dismiss,’” Burakou said.
The journalist has not yet decided how to proceed.
In 2021, Burakou received a Polish visa and learned that, at Poland’s initiative, he had been banned from entering Schengen countries until March 2, 2026. For five years, the journalist tried to find out the reasons for the ban in order to challenge it.
Burakou believes that the basis for the ban may have been events from 20 years ago.
“In the mid-2000s, during my journalistic work, there was a fairly serious conflict related to the use of funds for equipment. This happened in Poland, and I was the author of a letter that we sent to the Polish Foreign Ministry, which financed the project. It ended with the equipment being urgently purchased, but soon afterward I was stopped at the border and my visa was also annulled,” Burakou said. He was banned from entering Poland for three years, but the journalist later obtained Schengen visas from the Lithuanian embassy without problems and visited the EU.
Burakou worked as a freelancer with Belsat, Radio Racyja and Deutsche Welle. In 2020, he was detained twice in connection with his professional activities, and in 2021 his apartment was searched. He currently lives in a country outside the Schengen area.
