Former Ambassador of Poland in Belarus Mariusz Maszkievicz Is Released from Hospital
On 7 April the former ambassador of the Republic of Poland Mariusz Maszkievicz was released from Minsk city clinical hospital after the end of the course of medical treatment
The former ambassador of Poland in Belarus Mariusz Maszkievicz was arrested in Minsk during the liquidation of the tent camp in Kastrychnitskaia Square. He was sentenced to 15 days of jail. He had heartache and on 29 March was transferred to the reanimation department of the first Minsk clinical hospital.
On 5 April the prime-minister of Poland Kazimierz Marcinkievicz urged Aliaksandr Lukashenka to immediately release Mariusz Maszkievicz and the Embassy of Poland in Belarus directed a note to the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the demand to refuse from putting Mr Maszkievicz back to jail.
72-year-old Jerzy Maszkievicz, Mariusz’s father, kept a hunger-strike of protest near the Belarusian Embassy in Warsaw to protest against the arrest of his son. During each day of the hunger-strike Kazimierz Marcinkievicz met with Jerzy, but nobody from the Belarusian Embassy came out. ‘It is a symbolic protest, because I know that none of the responsible officials from the embassy will come out. I just want to greet my son here’, pointed Jerzy Maszkievicz.
The request of the Polish side was executed and on 7 April, after the end of the course of medical treatment, Mr Maszkievicz was released from hospital. The following day he met his father near the Belarusian Embassy in Warsaw. It was the fifth day of Jerzy’s hunger-strike. Mr Maszkievicz said he was proud of his father, but was anxious about his health. He told journalists about the tent camp, the conditions in the detention center in Akrestsin St and the hospital treatment. According to him, the police in Kastrychnitskaia Square were very aggressive. ‘When special police forces ringed the tent camp, people chanted ‘Police with People!’, but the police were so aggressive that there was no use to apply to them with such slogans. It reminded me the events in Poland in 1980-ies. However, I know that there are many people in the police who are also against the regime,’ said Mr Maszkievicz.
Mariusz Maszkievicz emphasized his Belarusian visa wasn’t annulled and he will probably visit his friends in Belarus after undergoing additional medical treatment in Poland. He said: ‘I am very glad that I am free now, but I am also very glad that I managed to be with my Belarusian friends in these hard times. I wish them freedom! Long Live Belarus!’
