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| - Three members of the Polish minority in Belarus, arrested by the regime on charges of stirring up racial hatred, have been freed and are now in Poland, officials said Wednesday. The Polish foreign ministry said the three, Irena Biernacka, Maria Tiszkowska and Anna Paniszewa, had been freed "as a result of the actions of Polish diplomatic and consular services". All three community figures were considered political prisoners by human rights groups. The ministry said in a statement they had arrived in Poland on May 25 without giving further details. Later on Wednesday, the three spoke to reporters outside the foreign ministry building in Warsaw. "I would like to express my thanks to the Polish state for rescuing me from prison," said Paniszewa, who was walking on crutches and has been held in prison since March 12 awaiting trial. Biernacka said the three were taken to the border by Belarusian authorities in an unmarked bus and that she had not been given back her passport. Two other leading members of the Polish minority in Belarus, Andzelika Borys and Andrzej Poczobut, are still in prison. Belarusian authorities have cracked down on dissent following unprecedented mass protests in the wake of a presidential election last year. Relations with Poland have deteriorated as Warsaw has taken in several leading opposition figures. The three released were part of a group representing Polish people in Belarus that Belarusian authorities accused of stirring up racial hatred and the "rehabilitation of Nazism". EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell had called on Minsk to release the group's members "along with all political prisoners currently detained". dt/jj
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