Belarusian jailed for two years in Poland for espionage

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

A Belarusian man has been sentenced to two years and two months in prison in Poland for spying on behalf of Minsk. The same court also fined a Polish national for failing to alert the authorities of the Belarusian’s activity.

Lublin’s district court found the 53-year-old Belarusian, named only as Nikolay M. under Polish privacy law, guilty of conducting espionage activities targeting Poland between 2018 and 2023, reports the Polish Press Agency (PAP). The verdict can still be appealed.

The trial was held behind closed doors due to national security concerns but, according to an indictment filed last November, Nikolay M. conducted surveillance of a military airport in Biała Podlaska, near the border with Belarus.

He collected information on military air operations, railway infrastructure, and the movement of military equipment.

Prosecutors said he also gathered data on facilities and vehicles used by Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) and established a communication channel with officers of the State Security Committee (KGB) of the Republic of Belarus.

Because Nikolay M., who was first detained in early 2023, has had his period of pretrial detention counted towards his sentence, he could be released as early as the end of this month.

Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza reports that Nikolay M. has been living in Poland for over a decade. Born in Lviv, Ukraine, he was fluent in Polish and most recently resided in Biała Podlaska, where he worked in small-scale trade, importing goods from Belarus – an activity that investigators say served as a cover for his espionage.

He was likely recruited by Belarusian intelligence due to his educational background. He is said to be a specialist in railway transport and logistics.

The second defendant, 59-year-old Polish citizen Bernard S., was initially accused of aiding the Belarusian by arranging his accommodation in Poland. The court later reclassified the charge to failure to inform law enforcement of Nikolay M.’s activities and imposed a fine of 7,000 zloty (€1,647).

Both men confessed to the charges during the investigation. According to Gazeta Wyborcza, Nikolay M. even gave a detailed account of what he was doing and who he was targeting.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland has made a number of arrests of people suspected of spying and carrying out sabotage on behalf of Russia and Belarus.

Earlier this month, Poland charged two Ukrainian citizens with terrorism and espionage over their alleged involvement in an arson attack carried out on behalf of Russia that destroyed Warsaw’s largest shopping centre last year.

Over the last year, there have been a series of acts of sabotage, disinformation and cyberattacks that Poland says were carried out by agents – often Ukrainian and Belarusian immigrants – acting on behalf of Russia. In response, Poland has closed Russia’s consulates in Poznań and Kraków.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Flox Papa/Flickr (under CC BY 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.