The suspect was detained early on Tuesday morning at the defence ministry’s headquarters in Warsaw. The arrest was carried out by the Military Counterintelligence Service, acting in coordination with the National Prosecutor’s Office department for military affairs and the Military Gendarmerie.
On Wednesday, prosecutors formally charged the man with espionage, a crime punishable by lengthy prison sentences under Polish law. Under Polish legislation, espionage includes acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service or passing on information whose disclosure could harm the state. Convictions can carry sentences ranging from eight years’ imprisonment to life.
According to unofficial information cited by Poland’s national news agency PAP, the suspect is believed to have spied for a country described as coming from an “eastern direction”. The same sources say he worked in the Ministry of National Defence’s Department of Defence Strategy and Planning.
Speaking earlier this week, the spokesperson for the minister coordinating the special services, Jacek Dobrzyński, said the Military Counterintelligence Service had obtained “substantial and incriminating evidence” indicating that the man had been acting on behalf of a foreign spy agency.
Asked about the level of classified information to which the suspect had access, Dobrzyński stressed that he was not a “high-ranking figure” but a civilian employee.
The department in which the man allegedly worked is responsible for, among other tasks, maintaining a register of facilities deemed critical to national security. It also prepares proposals related to the functioning of Poland’s crisis management system within both national and allied frameworks, as well as procedures for raising the country’s defence readiness.
The case was first reported by the Polish news outlet Onet, which said the suspect is a 60-year-old man who had been employed at the ministry for more than 30 years.
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Source: PAP/X/@TomaszSiemoniak