Jan Dziedziczak, the Warsaw government's pointman for issues affecting Polish communities abroad, told the Nasz Dziennik daily: "The situation is all the more tragic since the only reason for their arrest was that they are Poles."
He added: "The authoritarian administration [in Belarus] is making false and absurd charges against them. In this situation, anyone can be accused and arrested."
The detention last month of four members of the Association of Poles in Belarus caused an outcry in Poland.
One of four has been charged with inciting national hatred, news outlets reported on Thursday.
The charge against Maria Tiszkowska comes after the Polish minority in Belarus commemorated Poland’s post-World War II anticommunist resistance fighters, public broadcaster Polish Radio reported.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has urged the Belarusian authorities not to "harass" Poles in that country and to stop treating them as "hostages."
Polish lawmakers earlier this week passed a resolution in which they called on the international community to help stop what they described as the persecution of Poles in Belarus.
Polish President Andrzej Duda last Friday appealed to the United Nations Security Council to discuss the human rights situation in Belarus, including the treatment of the Polish minority by strongman Alexander Lukashenko’s regime.
(pk/gs)
Source: PAP