Polish court sentences three Belarusians accused of spying for Russia

December 19, Pozirk. The District Court of Lublin in Poland has handed down a verdict against 14 foreigners, including three Belarusians, accused of spying for Russia.

The case involved 16 defendants. Two of them are subject to separate proceedings. The Onet news portal reported that the defendant Artem A. received the longest sentence of six years in prison; the defendant Maria M., the shortest sentence of 11 months in prison; all the defendants were fined.

“We were dealing with a modern way of running and organizing a spy network that was previously unknown in the entire European Union, not just in Poland,” said prosecutor Piotr Łopatyński, as quoted by the news portal.

The group reportedly acted on the orders of a man on the Telegram messaging app. He was interested in monitoring critical infrastructure, such as the Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport, the Port of Gdynia, a railway station in Rzeszów, border crossings with Ukraine, and key railways delivering weapons and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The group leader allegedly planned to derail a train carrying military vehicles and offered $10,000 for the assignment.

According to the US-funded Radyjo Svaboda, the case involved one Russian besides the three Belarusians. The other 12 were Ukrainian nationals.

On March 16, Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said that the Internal Security Agency had detained nine foreigners on suspicion of cooperating with Russian security services.

According to Kamiński, there is evidence that the group monitored railway lines. “Its tasks included identifying, monitoring and documenting arms shipments to Ukraine,” the minister said, according to a Russian translation. “The suspects also prepared sabotage activities aimed at paralyzing the supply of equipment, weapons and aid to Ukraine.”

A Belarusian propaganda account on Telegram said at the time that three of the nine were citizens of Belarus. They are Uładzisłaŭ Paśmiciucha (born 1994), Maryja Miadźviedzieva (2004) and Mikałaj Maskalenka (1971). It also posted video appeals by the detainees’ supposed relatives saying that the case was fabricated.

On October 19, a court in Poznań began the trial of two Belarusians accused of spying for the Belarusian military intelligence.