Poland bans trucks and trailers from Russia and Belarus

AndThe move on transport joins a list of twenty companies and 381 individuals, 16 of whom are businessmen, who have been targeted by Warsaw sanctions because of their association with the government of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko or maintaining business ties with Minsk.

The decree enacted by Poland expressly mentions trailers for heavy goods vehicles to prevent the entry of Polish-registered trucks with trailers registered in Russia and Belarus.

Last Friday, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski announced that the Warsaw government would take action against Minsk after Belarusian opposition leader Andrzej Poczobut was sentenced to eight years in prison. For operational principles.

Poczobut, a Belarusian journalist and historian of Polish origin, has been imprisoned since March 2021.

The protester was found responsible by a court in Grodno, western Belarus, for “inciting hatred”, carrying out “terrorist activities” and “rehabilitating Nazism” in political activities against the Minsk government.

His appeal was rejected in a closed-door hearing last week by judge Igor Lubavitsky, decorated by activist Lukashenko, who refused to apologise.

According to the Polish press, Poczobut’s relatives recently observed the decomposing body of the detainee, who is in maximum security, isolated, without contact with a lawyer and subject to very limited visits.

The Warsaw government has asked Minsk to release all political dissidents imprisoned in Poczobut and Belarus, especially the 200,000-citizen minority of Polish origin.

Poland and Belarus maintain tense relations, which have worsened since Warsaw accused Minsk of fomenting a migration crisis on the border between the two countries in 2021, and which Poland sees as a means of fomenting instability in Polish territory and the EU. .

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