Poczobut, a longtime critic of Alexander Lukashenko’s authoritarian rule and a leading figure in Belarus’s Polish minority, shared the 2025 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought with Georgian journalist Mzia Amaglobeli. His daughter accepted the award on his behalf while he remained imprisoned. Poczobut was released on April 28 in a prisoner exchange involving Belarus, Poland and US mediation, but rights groups say hundreds of political prisoners remain behind bars in Belarus.