Polish School Headmistress Returns To Brest, Goes Missing

Earlier, the co-founder of the organization was detained.

Anna Paniszewa, director of Polskaya Shkola LLC, returned to Belarus the day after the arrest in Brest of the co-founder of the organization in a criminal case initiated by the Belarusian authorities.

According to tut.by, Paniszewa was traveling from Poland by bus. At about 1.20 she was supposed to arrive in Brest. Her phone is currently unavailable. According to unconfirmed information, the headmistress of the Polish School was detained. An informed source told tut.by about it. The detention of Paniszewa is also reported by the Telegram channel of the Belteleradiocompany. For a comment, the journalists turned to the press center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but have not received an answer yet.

On March 11 it became known about the detention of the co-founder of the Polish School. A 43-year-old resident of Brest is a suspect in a criminal case initiated by the prosecutor's office.

The criminal case was opened on March 10 under Part 3 of Article 130 of the Criminal Code. The sanction of the article provides for five to twelve years in prison.

Anna Paniszewa, in her video message, which appeared on the social network on March 11, called the accusations “far-fetched”, and suggested that their goal was “the liquidation of the Polish School”. In the video, she said that she intends to return to Belarus in order to refute “all slander by the force of argumentation”.

On March 9, Charge d'Affaires of Poland in Belarus Marcin Wojciechowski was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. The diplomat was handed a note of protest over the participation of the consul in Brest in an event dedicated to the “day of the damned soldiers”. They noted that having participated in this event, the Polish representative violated the norms of the international law. The consul was asked to leave the territory of Belarus.

On March 10, the deputy head of the Polish Foreign Ministry said that Poland had recognized the diplomat from the Belarusian embassy in Warsaw as persona non grata.

On March 11, Charge d'Affaires of Poland in Belarus Marcin Wojciechowski was summoned to the Belarusian Foreign Ministry. The Polish side was handed a note with a proposal to the head and consul of the Polish Consulate General in Hrodna to leave the territory of Belarus within 48 hours, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry reported.