Belarus reportedly frees Polish Carmelite friar
Br. Grzegorz Gaweł was arrested on espionage charges in September 2025.
The authorities in Belarus reportedly released a young Polish Carmelite friar Tuesday, more than seven months after he was arrested on espionage charges.
Poland’s Radio Zet reported April 28 that Br. Grzegorz Gaweł, O.Carm., was released during a prisoner exchange with Belarus.
The freeing of the 27-year-old friar was also reported by independent Belarusian media and human rights groups, as well as Polish Catholic media.
The Polish government initially identified only one of the people freed in the exchange: the journalist Andrzej Poczobut, imprisoned since 2021.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk posted a photograph on social media of himself greeting Poczobut at the border between Poland and Belarus.
A total of five people convicted in Belarus and Russia — three Poles and two Moldovans — were freed at the border April 28. They were exchanged for five citizens of Belarus, Russia, and other Commonwealth of Independent States nations, who were convicted in European Union member states and other countries.
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said the exchange would not have been possible without the U.S. President Donald Trump, his special envoy to Belarus, John Coale, and the U.S. State Department.
Neither the Belarusian bishops’ conference nor the Polish bishops’ conference had commented on the reports of Gaweł’s release at press time. No new photos of the Carmelite friar have been published.
Belarusian KGB agents arrested Gaweł on Sept. 4, 2025, in Lyepyel, a town in Belarus’ northern Vitebsk region that has an active Catholic community.
A video circulated by state-run media showed masked agents bundling Gaweł to the ground beside a car, pressing the side of his face into the dirt. Gaweł’s glasses fell off as he was lifted to his feet with his arms held behind his back.
He appeared confused as the agents presented him with what they claimed was evidence of espionage, an offense under Article 358 of the Criminal Code of Belarus.
State media claimed that Gaweł possessed a sensitive document relating to the “Zapad 2025” joint military exercise by Belarus and Russia, which took place on Sept. 12-16, 2025.
They also reported that he was carrying cash in several currencies and a SIM card from MTS Belarus, one of the country’s major mobile network operators. His other possessions included a rosary, prayer books, and prayer cards.
The Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Poland’s chargé d’affaires — the head of the Polish embassy in Minsk in the absence of a full ambassador — on Sept. 5, 2025. The ministry presented the chargé d’affaires with a protest note.
A spokesman for Poland’s Coordinator of Special Services described Gaweł’s arrest as “another provocation by the Lukashenko regime aimed at our country.”
“Polish special services do not use monks to gather information about military maneuvers,” he said.
The Carmelites in Poland confirmed Gaweł’s detention on Sept. 6, 2025, asking for prayers through the intercession of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
The Viasna Human Rights Center, founded in 1996 by Belarusian pro-democracy activist Ales Bialatski, recognized Gaweł as a political prisoner on Sept. 23, 2025.
Relations between Poland and Belarus were severely strained after the long-serving Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory in a disputed 2020 presidential election.
Belarusian authorities crushed mass protests that followed the election with the help of the country’s neighbor and main ally, Russia. Belarus accused Poland of supporting the protesters.
Poland has repeatedly warned its citizens not to visit its eastern neighbor due to the chance of arrest on charges such as espionage. Polish authorities believe the arrests are used to secure political leverage.
There are almost 300,000 ethnic Poles living in Belarus, accounting for around 3% of the country’s population. There are deep familial, cultural, and religious ties between Poland and the ethnic Polish minority in Belarus.
Gaweł grew up in Rzeszów, the largest city in southeastern Poland. He entered the Carmelites in 2018, taking his first vows on Aug. 18, 2020.
He made his perpetual vows as a Carmelite on March 19, 2025, at the Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kraków, Poland.
After the 2020 election, Belarusian authorities launched a crackdown on civil society that included the arrests of several Catholic priests.
The country released two jailed clerics in November 2025, following the resumption of dialogue with the U.S., and a meeting between Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, and Lukashenko.
The press service of the Belarusian bishops’ conference expressed gratitude to all parties involved in securing the freedom of Fr. Henryk Okołotowicz and Fr. Andrzej Juchniewicz, O.M.I., who were imprisoned for alleged offenses against the state.
Both priests are Belarusian citizens belonging to Belarus’ Polish ethnic minority.