{"id":515044,"date":"2026-02-04T22:47:30","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=515044"},"modified":"2026-02-05T12:17:46","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T09:17:46","slug":"polish-court-refuses-to-extradite-belarusian-citizen-sought-on-tax-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/polish-court-refuses-to-extradite-belarusian-citizen-sought-on-tax-charges","title":{"rendered":"Polish Court Refuses to Extradite Belarusian Citizen Sought on Tax Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The District Court in P\u0142ock ruled that Belarus\u2019s judicial system does not ensure the right to a fair trial and that criminal proceedings against opposition-minded citizens are often demonstrative in nature. For this reason, the court refused to extradite to Minsk a Belarusian citizen wanted on charges of tax crimes, GazetaPrawna reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to the reasoning of the decision, the court granted the prosecutor\u2019s motion to declare the extradition legally inadmissible. The case concerned a Belarusian citizen accused of large-scale tax evasion. Under Belarusian law, such actions are punishable by restriction of liberty or imprisonment for a term of three to seven years, with a possible fine and a ban on holding certain positions.<\/p>\n

The man did not consent to extradition and told the Polish court that after the 2020 presidential election in Belarus he had assisted protest participants, after which he was subjected to pressure from security forces and was forced to leave the country in 2021. He currently lives in Poland with his family, and proceedings to grant him international protection are ongoing.<\/p>\n

The court concluded that, if handed over to the Belarusian authorities, there is a real risk of violations of his fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, including the prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment. The court also pointed to the lack of guarantees of a fair trial in Belarus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly emphasized that a state may not extradite a person if there is a real risk that, following the transfer, he would, for example, be subjected to torture or deprived of liberty without guarantees of a fair trial,\u201d<\/i> the reasoning states.<\/p>\n

The court also noted that extradition in such circumstances would contradict the Constitution of Poland and the country\u2019s international obligations, making it inadmissible.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe judicial system is not independent, and trials of individuals linked to the opposition are often demonstrative in nature and lack basic guarantees, such as access to a lawyer, openness, and so on,\u201d<\/i> the court stressed.<\/p>\n

The P\u0142ock court further pointed out that violations of the right to a fair trial occur in Belarus, including, in particular, the lack of access to independent lawyers. Therefore, the court said, there can be no talk of a real right to defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven the systemic dependence of Belarusian justice on the executive branch and the absence of the possibility of independent judicial oversight, it is impossible to consider that the person sought would be guaranteed the right to defense or the right to a fair trial before an independent court,\u201d<\/i> the court concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The District Court in P\u0142ock ruled that Belarus\u2019s judicial system does not ensure the right to a fair trial and that criminal proceedings against opposition-minded citizens are often demonstrative in nature. For this reason, the court refused to extradite to Minsk a Belarusian citizen wanted on charges of tax crimes, GazetaPrawna reported. According to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":510505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6984603f00f87.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Polish Court Refuses to Extradite Belarusian Citizen Sought on Tax Charges"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142339,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-515044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-main","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}