Five Poles released from detention in Belarus: deputy FM

Five Polish citizens who were detained after a contested presidential election in neighbouring Belarus have now been released, a Polish deputy foreign minister said on Friday.

People wait for relatives and friends to be released from a detention centre in Minsk, Belarus, on Thursday, August 14, 2020, in the wake of a crackdown on protests against the results of a contested presidential election in that country.

Photo: PAP/EPA/STRINGER

"I can say that five people—three in the Minsk region and two in Grodno—had been released from detention by Thursday evening,” Marcin Przydacz told a Polish Catholic radio broadcaster.

He identified the freed Poles as "University of Warsaw students who had found themselves in Belarus,” Poland's PAP news agency reported.

"They are now under the care of our embassy," Przydacz said.

Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz. Photo: gov.pl

Earlier this week, the Polish ambassador to Belarus demanded the release of three Poles detained in that country, according to officials in Warsaw.

Thousands have been detained by Belarusian authorities amid a crackdown on protesters who accuse strongman President Alexander Lukashenko of rigging his landslide re-election victory on Sunday, August 9.

(gs)

Source: PAP