{"id":550220,"date":"2026-06-11T20:31:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:31:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=550220"},"modified":"2026-06-11T20:53:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T17:53:36","slug":"andrzej-poczobut-receives-podlaskie-voivodeship-honorary-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/andrzej-poczobut-receives-podlaskie-voivodeship-honorary-award","title":{"rendered":"Andrzej Poczobut Receives Podlaskie Voivodeship Honorary Award"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>Former political prisoner, journalist and activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus <b>Andrzej Poczobut<\/b> visited Bia\u0142ystok after five years of imprisonment. City and regional authorities presented him with the Honorary Medal of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, <a href=\"https:\/\/racyja.com\/by\/sumezza\/andzeja-pacobuta-adznacyli-hanarovym-medalem-padljasskaha-vajavodstva\/\">Radio Racyja reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Presenting the award, Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshal <b>\u0141ukasz Prokorym<\/b> described it as the region&#8217;s highest distinction and said it was being awarded to Poczobut as an example of heroism and dedication to the struggle for independence and truth. Bia\u0142ystok Mayor <b>Tadeusz Truskolaski<\/b> noted that being Polish in Belarus is difficult and that openly criticizing the authorities is even more challenging.<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-550220 gallery-columns-2 gallery-size-large'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/722163715_973546465548897_1404629640508887920_n.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/722163715_973546465548897_1404629640508887920_n.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-550196\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/722163715_973546465548897_1404629640508887920_n.jpg 900w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/722163715_973546465548897_1404629640508887920_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/722163715_973546465548897_1404629640508887920_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/722163715_973546465548897_1404629640508887920_n-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-550196'>\n\t\t\t\t\u0424\u043e\u0442\u043e: facebook.com\/p\/Marsza\u0142ek-\u0141ukasz-Prokorym\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/720721964_973546675548876_6022092558099423932_n.jpg'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"900\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/720721964_973546675548876_6022092558099423932_n.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-550195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/720721964_973546675548876_6022092558099423932_n.jpg 900w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/720721964_973546675548876_6022092558099423932_n-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/720721964_973546675548876_6022092558099423932_n-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/720721964_973546675548876_6022092558099423932_n-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-550195'>\n\t\t\t\t\u0424\u043e\u0442\u043e: facebook.com\/p\/Marsza\u0142ek-\u0141ukasz-Prokorym\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><em><i>&#8220;I am very grateful to the city of Bia\u0142ystok for years of cooperation with the Union of Poles in Belarus. My gratitude goes to the entire voivodeship for its solidarity with the Union of Poles. I thank everyone who devoted their time to come on the 25th of every month,&#8221;<\/i><\/em> Poczobut said.<\/p>\n<p>Poczobut was arrested on March 25, 2021. Since then, solidarity rallies in his support have been held on the 25th of every month at the monument to Father <b>Jerzy Popie\u0142uszko<\/b> in Bia\u0142ystok. It was at this location that Poczobut met with participants of those rallies.<\/p>\n<p>In February 2023, Poczobut was sentenced to eight years in a medium-security penal colony. The trial was held behind closed doors. He was found guilty of inciting hatred and calling for sanctions. He was released on April 28 as part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/poczobut-released-belarusian-kgb-and-polish-intelligence-agency-carry-out-5-for-5-exchange\">5-for-5 prisoner exchange<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former political prisoner, journalist and activist of the Union of Poles in Belarus Andrzej Poczobut visited Bia\u0142ystok after five years of imprisonment. City and regional authorities presented him with the Honorary Medal of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, Radio Racyja reported. Presenting the award, Podlaskie Voivodeship Marshal \u0141ukasz Prokorym described it as the region&#8217;s highest distinction and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":550217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/6a2af6240e504.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Andrzej Poczobut Receives Podlaskie Voivodeship Honorary Award"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142338,143090],"tags":[143248],"class_list":["post-550220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics","tag-polsha"],"wps_subtitle":"","permalink_manager":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550220","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=550220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}