Press Secretary of the Belarusian Foreign Ministry A.Glaz comments on the situation with the Consulate General of Poland in Brest

Today, the Chargé d'affaires a.i. of Poland in Belarus has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

The case we are dealing with is absolutely egregious. A Polish citizen was involved in an accident that killed two Belarusian girls. He became a suspect in the fatal accident. It was quite natural that the Polish citizen was asked not to leave the Republic of Belarus. 

However, on 3 January, in an attempt to escape responsibility, the Polish citizen tried to leave our country and hide on the territory of Poland but was detained by border guards. 

We have clearly established that the escape attempt was organized by employees of the Consulate General of Poland in Brest. Moreover, they did it consciously, understanding both the validity of the travel restrictions for the suspect and the fact that two people died as a result of the accident.

In fact, the employees of the Polish Сonsulate deliberately encouraged their fellow citizen to violate the Belarusian legislation, which would put him up for the subsequent international warrant in connection with the fatal accident. 

Such 'good advice' and 'good services' did a lot of harm to the Polish citizen and he was taken into custody.

The actions of the employees of the Consulate General of Poland directly violate a number of provisions of the Vienna Conventions on Diplomatic and Consular Relations, as well as laws of Belarus, just as they would violate the laws of any other country. Such actions are incomprehensible for a consul or a diplomat. Diplomats are supposed to be the paragon of legality and are vested with the right, for example, to visit closed or penitentiary institutions. This official has deliberately violated the law. Things are aggravated by the fact that people died in the car accident.

We sincerely hope that it was an isolated incident that does not reflect on the work of the Polish Foreign Ministry in general. At the same time, we do not see the opportunity for the consular officer to continue his work in Belarus.

 We will inform our foreign partners about the incident. 

We hope that our Polish colleagues will draw the appropriate conclusions.

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