Poland Defence Ministry Employee Detained for Working for Belarusian and Russian Intelligence
Poland’s Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW) detained an employee of the Polish Ministry of National Defence on the morning of 3 February on suspicion of collaborating with Russian and Belarusian intelligence. This was reported by sources in the ministry to the Polish portal Onet
According to the publication’s data , the individual detained on suspicion of espionage had worked for a long time (since the 1990s) as a mid-level official in the Ministry of National Defence’s Department of Strategy and Planning, holding several different posts over that period.
The 60-year-old man was arrested at his workplace and, according to the Polish outlet, was unaware of the impending detention. He was escorted from the ministry building by military police officers and is currently under investigation by the Eighth Military Department of the Warsaw District Prosecutor’s Office.
Sources for the publication report that the entire operation was the result of a lengthy investigation conducted by the Military Counterintelligence Service.
«The security services had been monitoring this individual’s activities for many months. His actions were thoroughly documented and analysed. Therefore, the evidence gathered against him is very compelling,» an Onet source familiar with the operation stated. According to him, this is the first such successful operation by Polish counterintelligence in recent years.
The arrest was confirmed by Janusz Seimei, press secretary for the Minister of National Defence, in an interview with the Onet TV channel. However, he declined to provide any details of the morning’s operation.
«I can only confirm the detention of a long-term employee of one of the departments and that the matter is related to activities conducted by the Military Counterintelligence Service. After the current actions are completed, we will later issue an appropriate statement on this matter,» said Seimei.
Later, the Polish Ministry of National Defence itself issued an official statement, confirming the detention of its long-serving employee.
«The case is under the jurisdiction of the Military Counterintelligence Service, which cooperated with the National Prosecutor’s Office’s Military Affairs Department and the Military Police during the arrest. Procedural proceedings are currently underway,» the ministry reported.
It is worth noting that neither Russia nor Belarus has yet commented on the detention of the man suspected of spying for a foreign state.
Meanwhile, last autumn, officers of the Belarusian KGB detained a Polish citizen on suspicion of espionage, accusing him of collecting classified information, including on military facilities, on the territory of our country.
КГБ Беларуси задержал в Лепеле «польского шпиона» с «секретным документом»