Andrzej Poczobut honored with the Sakharov Prize at European Parliament

A for­mal cer­e­mo­ny hon­or­ing the recip­i­ents of the Andrei Sakharov Prize for Free­dom of Thought took place on Decem­ber 16 in Stras­bourg dur­ing a ple­nary ses­sion of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. This year’s award was grant­ed to Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­er and jour­nal­ist Andrzej Poc­zobut and Geor­gian jour­nal­ist Mzia Ama­glo­beli.

Andrzej Poczobut’s daugh­ter, Yana, at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. Video screen­shot

Nei­ther lau­re­ate was able to attend the cer­e­mo­ny in per­son, as both remain impris­oned in their home coun­tries.

“We know how much these values are worth”

Open­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, Rober­ta Met­so­la, Pres­i­dent of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment, empha­sized that Euro­pean democ­ra­cy is built on free­dom of thought and free­dom of expres­sion.

“We know how much these val­ues are worth, and we will nev­er sur­ren­der them.”

Met­so­la stressed that free and inde­pen­dent media are a cor­ner­stone of democ­ra­cy, not­ing the sym­bol­ic impor­tance of award­ing the Sakharov Prize to two jour­nal­ists who have risked every­thing to expose threats to demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues in their coun­tries.

“But democ­ra­cy can­not be silenced, and although they can­not be with us today, Andrzej and Mzia’s urgent calls for democ­ra­cy ring clear in this cham­ber and across our con­ti­nent. This house stands in sol­i­dar­i­ty with Andrzej and Mzia in their strug­gle. We call for their imme­di­ate release, along with every per­son wrong­ful­ly impris­oned.”

She added that the Par­lia­ment would con­tin­ue to exert pres­sure until all polit­i­cal pris­on­ers are free and reaf­firmed Europe’s com­mit­ment to Belaru­sian soci­ety:

“We will keep up the pres­sure until every­one is free. We will not for­get them. We will nev­er aban­don them, until the age of dic­ta­tors is final­ly over, until Belarus is final­ly free. This Par­lia­ment sees what is hap­pen­ing in Belarus and in Geor­gia.”

“You can rely on this house to con­tin­ue speak­ing up for Andrzej, for Mzia, and for all those who long for free­dom,” stat­ed Ms Met­so­la.

“Behind every name there is a home, a story, and people who are waiting”

Dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny, Yana Poc­zobut, the daugh­ter of Andrzej Poc­zobut, addressed Mem­bers of the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. She remind­ed them that her fam­i­ly has lived in silence and uncer­tain­ty for near­ly five years.

“Behind every name writ­ten in reports, there is a home, a sto­ry, and peo­ple who wait. My father is not only a pub­lic fig­ure. He is a hus­band, a son, a friend. Every day of these five years, we have not known how he is, if he is safe. Yet every day we choose hope, because hope is the only thing that has not been tak­en from us.”

Andrzej Poczobut’s daugh­ter, Yana, at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. Video screen­shot.

Yana Poc­zobut stressed that her family’s expe­ri­ence is far from unique. She men­tioned the case of Belaru­sian polit­i­cal pris­on­er Mikalai Statke­vich, who has been held incom­mu­ni­ca­do for years.

“I men­tion his name today not as a polit­i­cal state­ment, but as a reminder that behind every silence there is a human life and a fam­i­ly that deserve to know the truth. When we speak these names aloud, they stop being sta­tis­tics. They become real again.”

She also addressed Mzia Ama­glo­beli direct­ly, despite her absence:

“Mzia, although you can­not be here today because you are cur­rent­ly impris­oned, your brav­ery reached this room. Your dig­ni­ty, your com­mit­ment, and your strength inspire far beyond the walls around you.

Your sto­ry reminds us that the strug­gle for human rights is uni­ver­sal. It does not belong to one coun­try. And I stand in this hall, I think of fam­i­lies across dif­fer­ent nations who live in uncer­tain­ty or sep­a­ra­tions, fam­i­lies who wait for news that nev­er comes, fam­i­lies who try to hold on to hope even when they feel it’s slip­ping away.

My own fam­i­ly has been changed for­ev­er. The absence of my father is some­thing we learned to live with but nev­er to accept. (…) And although he can­not see this whole today, I hope he some some­how knows he is not for­got­ten.”

Her speech was met with a stand­ing ova­tion.

Andrzej Poczobut’s daugh­ter, Yana, at the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment. Video screen­shot

The Sakharov Prize and Belarus

The Sakharov Prize for Free­dom of Thought was estab­lished by the Euro­pean Par­lia­ment in 1988 and is named after Andrei Sakharov, a Sovi­et physi­cist, dis­si­dent, and for­mer polit­i­cal pris­on­er. It is award­ed annu­al­ly to indi­vid­u­als or orga­ni­za­tions who have made an excep­tion­al con­tri­bu­tion to the defense of human rights and fun­da­men­tal free­doms.

Belarus has a long his­to­ry con­nect­ed to the prize. Pre­vi­ous lau­re­ates include the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists (2004), oppo­si­tion leader Ali­ak­san­dr Milinke­vich (2006), and a broad group of Belaru­sian demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers and activists in 2020, includ­ing Svi­at­lana Tsikhanouskaya, Svi­at­lana Aleievich, Maria Kalesnika­va, Siarhei Tsikhanous­ki, Ales Biali­ats­ki, and Mikalai Statke­vich.

Mzia Ama­glo­beli from Geor­gia and Andrzej Poc­zobut from Belarus, 2025 Sakharov Prize lau­re­ates © L.S/Belta AFP & Z.T/Netgazeti

The Case of Andrzej Poczobut

Andrzej Poc­zobut was nom­i­nat­ed for the Andrei Sakharov Prize by the Euro­pean Con­ser­v­a­tives and Reformists Group, which includes Poland’s Law and Jus­tice par­ty.

Andrzej Poc­zobut, a jour­nal­ist and one of the lead­ers of the unrec­og­nized Union of Poles in Belarus, was detained on March 25, 2021, in Hrod­na as part of the so-called “Pol­ish case,” which tar­get­ed activists of the Pol­ish minor­i­ty.

Belaru­sian author­i­ties accused him of call­ing for actions alleged­ly harm­ful to nation­al secu­ri­ty and of incit­ing eth­nic and social hatred. On Feb­ru­ary 8, 2023, a Belaru­sian court sen­tenced Poc­zobut to eight years in prison.

The Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists strong­ly con­demned the ver­dict, describ­ing it as polit­i­cal­ly moti­vat­ed. Today, Andrzej Poc­zobut is one of 28 impris­oned media work­ers in Belarus, sym­bol­iz­ing the broad­er crack­down on inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ism under the Lukashen­ka regime.

The Case of Mzia Amaglobeli

Geor­gian jour­nal­ist Mzia Ama­glo­beli, founder of the out­let Batumelebi, was arrest­ed on Jan­u­ary 11, 2025, dur­ing the government’s crack­down on pro-democ­ra­cy protests. She was ini­tial­ly accused of assault­ing a police offi­cer fol­low­ing a con­fronta­tion with the Batu­mi police chief.

Despite inter­na­tion­al crit­i­cism, Ama­glo­beli was con­vict­ed of resist­ing and threat­en­ing a law enforce­ment offi­cer and sen­tenced to two years in prison. Human rights orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing the Belaru­sian Asso­ci­a­tion of Jour­nal­ists, had called for her imme­di­ate release and the drop­ping of all charges.

The 2025 Sakharov Prize once again under­scores that repres­sion in Belarus remains one of Europe’s most urgent human rights crises, and that the fate of polit­i­cal pris­on­ers like Andrzej Poc­zobut con­tin­ues to demand inter­na­tion­al atten­tion and pres­sure.