Belarus offers asylum to a fugitive Polish judge wanted on espionage charges

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) – Belarus has granted asylum to a former Polish judge who faced espionage charges at home following his defection in May to the Kremlin-aligned country.

A decree published on Friday by Alexander Lukashenko, the independent president of Belarus, described Tomasz Szmydt as “persecuted for political reasons” in Poland. The country is a member of the EU and NATO which has given Ukraine a lot of support in its fight against Russian aggression.

Szmydt’s defection to Belarus in May focused attention on Poland as a key target for Russian intelligence and sparked a bitter political row over the circumstances of his rapid rise through the ranks of the Polish justice system.

Polish prosecutors and special services launched an investigation the same month after Belarusian media reported that Szmydt had arrived in the country and requested protection. Warsaw responded days later by placing Szmydt on a wanted list, a step toward international arrest on espionage charges that would restrict his ability to travel internationally.

Polish officials were working to determine how dangerous Szmydt’s knowledge of any classified information would be to the interests of Warsaw and its Western allies. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has publicly called him a traitor.

Szmydt fled to Belarus after resigning as a judge at the Warsaw Administrative Court, in a public statement that he was doing so in opposition to Poland’s “dangerous and unjust” policy towards Belarus and Russia. After a while, he appeared at a press conference in Belarus, praising Lukashenko’s regime and presenting himself as a victim of repression.

A Polish court later that month lifted Szmydt’s immunity, allowing him to be tried in absentia on spying allegations he denies.

Szmydt gained notoriety in Poland for his involvement in a 2019 impeachment campaign sponsored by the Ministry of Justice under the previous right-wing government. Three years later, he appeared to be switching sides, appearing in a TV documentary to expose what he called the unethical behavior of judges close to the ruling party.

Szmydt’s defection shocked Poland, which has a history of distrusting Russia.

Belarus has been one of the Kremlin’s few close allies since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Lukashenko has relied on Moscow’s funding and support. In return, he allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to send troops and weapons to the neighboring country, and to send tactical nuclear weapons to Belarusian soil.

Authorities in Minsk have been mounting repressive measures ahead of January’s presidential election in which the strongman is seeking a seventh term, including arresting hundreds of people who have demonstrated solidarity with Kyiv.

Authorities have responded to mass protests following Lukashenko’s controversial 2020 election with widespread violence in which some 65,000 people were arrested. Large numbers of dissidents were arrested or fled the country, and human rights activists say Belarus holds around 1,300 political prisoners.