In a picture posted on X, a smiling Poczobut is seen shaking hands with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
“Welcome to your Polish home, my friend,” Tusk writes.
In return, according to state-run Russian media, the Russian archaeologist Aleksandr Butjagin, whom Ukraine has accused of looting and illegal excavations in Russian-occupied Crimea, will be released.
Poczobut was arrested in Belarus in 2021 and sentenced two years later to eight years in prison in a trial that was ruled politically motivated. Last year, he was awarded the EU's Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought.
In the past year, Belarus has - partly after American efforts - released opposition leader Maria Kolesnikova and Nobel laureate Ales Byalyatski, among others.
