Imprisoned Belarusian Catholic opposition journalist Poczobut receives Sakharov prize

(OSV News) -- Two imprisoned journalists, Belarusian Catholic Andrzej Poczobut and Georgian Mzia Amaglobeli, have been named laureates of the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, to be awarded by the European Parliament Dec. 16.

"We honor two journalists whose courage shines as a beacon for all who refuse to be silenced," European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said in announcing the winners Oct. 22. "Both have paid a heavy price for speaking truth to power, becoming symbols of the struggle for freedom and democracy. The Parliament stands with them, and with all those who continue to demand freedom."

Poczobut, who was raised in a traditional Catholic home, is an essayist, blogger and activist from the Polish minority in Belarus. Known for his outspoken criticism of the Alexander Lukashenka regime and for his writings on history and human rights, he has been arrested many times, but now has been detained since 2021 and sentenced to eight years in a penal colony.

"His health has since deteriorated but, despite not receiving the medical care he needs, he is still fighting for freedom and democracy. Poczobut's current state of health is unknown and his family is not allowed to visit," the France-based European Parliament said in his bio.

Amaglobeli is a Georgian journalist and director of online media outlets Batumelebi and Netgazeti, who was arrested in January for joining anti-government protests in Georgia. In August, she was sentenced to two years in prison on political grounds.

She is "Georgia's first female political prisoner since the country's independence and a defender of freedom of expression," the European Parliament said.

Named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is the EU's highest distinction in the field of human rights. Every year since 1988, the Parliament has awarded it to individuals, groups or organizations in recognition of their work to defend human rights, freedom of expression and democratic values.

For Ruslan Szoszyn, a Belarusian journalist living in Poland for almost two decades, honoring the two journalists is "important" as it shines a light on their unjustful imprisonment. In Poczobut's case it's especially crucial "because without media attention, without attention of the public opinion, it's impossible to survive in Belarusian prisons. And many political prisoners in Belarus have been saved by media attention."

In a March 15, 2023, resolution, the European Parliament called for the immediate and unconditional release of Poczobut, stating that the charges against him were "politically motivated" and "aimed at silencing independent voices and suppressing freedom of expression and association." In a separate June 19 resolution, the European Parliament called for "immediate and unconditional release of Mzia Amaglobeli in Georgia."

In Belarus, many political prisoners "are living in terrible, drastic, inhumane conditions," they are "tortured, psychologically and physically" and "exhausted because no one is even speaking up for them. And Andrzej Poczobut is precisely the person we're speaking up for, we care for him, so that he doesn't disappear, so that we don't forget about Andrzej," Szoszyn, who is a journalist of the Polish Rzeczpospolita daily journalist, told OSV News.

"We know that this award has greatly angered the Belarusian authorities," because "it's simply impossible now to harm this man," and "because the attention of the whole world deters dictatorial regimes," Szoszyn said, describing how the Sakharov award gives Poczobut some protection.

Catholics are among prominent political prisoners in Belarus, including winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize Ales Bialiatski. His supporters have urged Western church leaders to take up his cause four years after he was detained and jailed in Belarus on trumped-up charges.

"I'd be so grateful if Western Catholics, who aren't constrained by diplomatic considerations, could help draw attention to his sufferings and pressure their governments to act," Natallia Pinchuk, Bialiatski's wife, told OSV News in September.

At least three Catholic priests are among 1,184 Belarusian inmates currently recognized by human rights groups as political prisoners, with dozens facing arrest in recent years.

Father Grzegorz Gawel, a 27-year-old Carmelite from Krakow's Basilica of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Poland, was detained Sept. 4 in a parking lot at Lepel, near Vitebsk, and accused of collecting information about "Zapad-2025," a Russian-Belarusian military exercise.

Oblate Father Andrzej Juchniewicz, chairman of Major Superiors, Delegates and Representatives of Institutes and Societies of Apostolic Life, was sentenced to 13 years in April at a closed trial when his charge of unspecified "subversive activities" was changed to "criminal offenses" involving sex with minors.

Father Henrykh Akalatovich, an elderly and unwell parish rector from Valožyn, began 11 years in the penal colony in April for "high treason."

Belarus' Catholics are hopeful that the late October visit of Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti to the country on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Diocese of Pinsk will create an opportunity to talk about imprisoned Catholics and their release.

Cardinal Gugerotti is prefect of the Dicastery for Eastern Churches and was apostolic nuncio to Belarus from 2011 to 2015.

"The visit of such an important Vatican official is certainly very important for Lukashenko, and ... if the Vatican actually intervenes in these matters, Lukashenko's regime will have no arguments -- it will have to release the priests," Szoszyn told OSV News.

Father Akalatovich was "wrongfully accused on some trumped-up charges of espionage, including for the Vatican," and "this is absurd," the journalist added.

"Every Belarusian journalist covering the Catholic Church knows who Henrykh Akalatovich is, that he was a man who always championed freedom of speech and always called a spade a spade. And this angered the Belarusian authorities at the time of the drastic moments in Belarusian history, when many remained silent, many chose to remain silent and not tell the truth," he said of the 2020 forged elections that caused massive protests and massive arrests of participants and opposition leaders.

Speaking of Poczobut, Szoszyn said that "Andrzej reported on events in Belarus after the rigged 2020 elections and the brutally suppressed post-election protests," calling Poczobut "a symbol" of Belarus' freedom fight.

Rzeczpospolita's journalist said Poczobut "is a man for whom the Catholic Church is very familiar, and has always commemorated all Catholic celebrations, as well as the shared heroes of Polish and Belarusian history. He cultivated this history, for example, by caring for the cemeteries of prominent Poles in Belarus."

In the past, the European Parliament awarded it the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2020 to Belarus' opposition.

Several Sakharov Prize laureates have gone on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Most recently, 2024 Sakharov Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado in Venezuela was awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.