Belarusian airline Belavia, 3 related companies, as well as the aircraft utilized by Alexander Lukashenka were removed by the United States from the list of sanctioned entities, as reported by the US Treasury Department in early November. Polish Euro-Parliamentarians believe that Europe should not abolish sanctions imposed on Belarus in the face of, among others, the very hard situation of political prisoners in Belarusian prisons.
– The engagement of the United States and Donald Trump in the process of dialog with Lukashenko is of course important, due to the fact that the consequence is the released political prisoners. We are happy with all individual released, due to the fact that this is simply a concrete life, the life of that individual and the full family. Belarusian prisons are truly hard to imagine. Western Europe absolutely does not realize what Belarusian prisons, labour camps are. We in Poland besides have no awareness of the conditions under which prisoners live – Says the agency Newseria Małgorzata Gosiewska, associate of the European Parliament of Law and Justice.
According to the Center for east Studies, on 11 September in Minsk Alaksandr Lukashenko hosted John Coale, a peculiar envoy of the president of the United States, and Christopher Smith, Deputy Secretary of State for east Europe. Following the meeting, John Coale announced that Donald Trump had decided to abolish sanctions imposed on Belavia's Belarusian airline. The President's emissary besides announced that the United States would search normalisation of relations, including sending the US Ambassador to Minsk in the close future. On the same day, the president of Belarus decided to release 52 political prisoners, including 3 Polish citizens.
On November 4, the Office for the Control of abroad Assets of the U.S. Treasury Department (OFAC) reported the removal of Belavia and related companies from the list of persons and entities subject to sanctions. The sanctions for CRJ-200ER EW-301PJ aircraft have besides been abolished. president Donald Trump on November 9, this year, via his account on the fact Social platform, reported that he appointed John Coale as a peculiar envoy of the United States to Belarus. In his statement, he wrote that the lawyer had already negotiated the release of 100 hostages and is seeking the release of another 50.
“Do not give in to the impression that Lukashenko has changed, changed or intends to change. This is the usurper, the dictator of Belarus, who claims to be the president of this country. It is worrying for us here in Europe, and it should be worrying in Poland that the president of the United States is doing any deal, deals, erstwhile it comes to talking to the Minsk government – says Michał Kobosko, associate of the European Parliament, Poland 2050. – Of course, for humanitarian reasons we have supported, supported and supported the release of political prisoners in Belarus. We request the release of all prisoners, including Andrzej Pochobut, awarded by us in the European Parliament with the Andrei Sakharov Prize. He and the another prisoners must be released, but it should not be concluded from this that the government is changing in any way and certainly, I say it on behalf of Europe, the level of sanctions imposed on the Belarusian government should not be lowered. It would be dangerous and nothing would bring.
Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian journalist, essayist, blogger and activist of the Polish number in Belarus, has been held there since 2021, erstwhile he was sentenced to 8 years of maximum safety prison. According to the latest information from Spring organization despite wellness problems, including arrhythmia and hypertension, as well as a fresh operation, it was transferred for six months to the closed unit.
– We must be aware that prisoners die not only from torture, deficiency of a doctor, medical assistance, conditions in which they reside, but simply from exhaustion of the body. The food rations they receive in prisons make them lose respective twelve kilograms after a fewer months. They're served rotten potatoes, fodder beets, no meat at all. For years incarcerated prisoners get nothing that could be any nourishment to the body. They just die of exhaustion. all life you get out of prison is important. – says Małgorzata Gosiewska.
The Belarusian Centre for the Defence of Human Rights Spring reports that 78 more people were convicted in October this year, with the number of political prisoners reaching 1242 (including 198 women). 1 100 and eighty-two of them are in a peculiarly hard situation due, among others, to their health.
– We cannot remove sanctions from Belarus, give in to what we erstwhile yielded to, that Lukashenko can be civilised, that there can be any conversation with him, that he will step down, we will step down. No, he must release all the prisoners and halt the repression, that is the basic condition of any dialogue. But we must besides have in the back of our head that a criminal must be punished for the crime. This awaits Lukashenko regardless of the improvement of the upcoming events – as translated by the associate of the European Parliament from the Law and Justice. – Americans have a plan in dialog with the Lukashenko regime, this is besides a kind of road to Vladimir Putin, we realize it, but we will besides convince the site with American specifics, actual stories, evidence of crimes, what the Lukashenko government truly is.
– We as Europe should keep the current level of sanctions and guarantee that Belarus does not exploit the gaps in sanctions and methods of circumventing them, for example by exporting through 3rd countries its products – says Michał Kobosko
The European Council imposed its first sanctions on Belarus in 2020 in connection with fraudulent elections and repression against peaceful demonstrators, opposition members and journalists, for their intimidation after the presidential elections, as well as for continuing human rights violations. They were extended to 28 February 2026 and included in the list of persons, among others, Alaksandr Lukashenka and his boy Viktor. In March 2022, the Council imposed the first package of sanctions against Belarus' participation in Russia's military invasion of Ukraine and introduced another. Individual ones are involved, specified as the freezing of assets of individuals and entities, as well as economical ones, including the ban on exports of certain goods to Belarus, the ban on entry for Belarusian road hauliers and the regulation of financial flows from Belarus to the EU.
