Belarusian journalist Andrzej Poczobut received the European Parliament’s 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in Strasbourg on Wednesday after being released from prison in April 2026.
Parliament President Roberta Metsola presented the award before Poczobut addressed MEPs during a formal plenary sitting, the parliamentary press service informed on Wednesday.
The prize had been awarded in December 2025 to Poczobut and Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli while both were still imprisoned in their respective countries.
Metsola said it was “our honour to welcome Andrzej Poczobut to the European Parliament as a free man”, and described his imprisonment as “unjust.”
Poczobut told MEPs that their statements reached him in prison, saying: “Your voice is not only heard in the free world. It crosses the prison walls,” according to his speech published by the Parliament.
Claims of repression in Belarus
In his address, Poczobut said Belarus lacked freedom of expression and press freedom, and referred to what he described as authorities monitoring critics on social media.
He also referred to “854 political prisoners” still held in Belarus, including “21 journalists”, and called for the release in Georgia of Amaglobeli.
Poczobut has worked as a journalist and historian for more than 20 years and is a representative of the Union of Poles in Belarus, which the European Parliament described as the only Polish organisation still active in the country.
The Sakharov Prize, awarded annually by the European Parliament since 1988, is named after Soviet physicist and political dissident Andrei Sakharov.
