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We know the date of the trial of the Five!

The District Court in the city of Hajnówka has notified the defendants of the date of the main hearing. This means that we know the date for the start of the trial – 28 January 2025, at 11:30am.

The trial will take place before the Court in Hajnówka City, Poland.

The trial is about five people facing up to five years in prison for providing humanitarian aid on the Polish-Belarusian border. According to the prosecutor’s office, their ‘crime’ was to provide food and clothing and transport refugees ‘into the country’, which literally means driving them from the forest a few kilometres to the nearest town. Additionally, according to the prosecution, the Five were supposed to have done this for personal gain – but not their own, but that of the refugees. They now face up to five years in prison for this simple human act.

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Solidarity Action Week with The Five – 13-20 September 2024!

Every day, dozens of people try to enter the European Union searching for a safe place and a dignified life. While states try to prevent them from doing so by using violence and often sentencing to death, part of society takes action from the bottom up, standing up for life and fighting for the protection of fundamental human rights. Quite often, such actions are met with criminalisation by states and their services.

This is the case of the five people who in the end of 2024 will stand trial for providing aid at the Polish-Belarusian border. In aim to show support for the defendants, we call international community to organise during the Solidarity Action Week, which will take place from 13-20 September 2024.

We encourage you to organise meetings and soli-events, share information about the case, prepare performative actions or other events and actions that will draw attention to the ongoing criminalisation of supporting people on the move. Solidarity is our strength!

If you want to organize an action, you are welcome to contact us: h5support@riseup.net

More about the case you will read here

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What is #H5Poland Case?

Five people who provide humanitarian aid at the poland-belarus border face serious criminal charges. Up to 5 years in prison!

The trial will begin autumn 2024 at the District Court in the city of Hajnówka, Poland.

The humanitarian crisis connected to the expansion of the eastern migration routes at the poland-belarus border persists since 2021. Thousands of people coming from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and many more attempting to cross the borders of Fortress Europe through Poland in search for a better life for themselves and their families were caught in a trap set by the belarusian regime. The polish government responded to these developments with the politics of violence and pushbacks as the local population and grassroots networks of organisations, individual persons and collective efforts became the only real line of delivering humanitarian aid. From the very beginning of the growing crisis, these groups faced criminalisation of their efforts to bring aid to those in need and now five of them are supposed for face the courts with serious criminal charges. In this situation, we are in dire need of international solidarity!

Continue reading “What is #H5Poland Case?”