Polish prosecutors will likely file espionage charges against a Polish judge who fled to Belarus, where he is now seeking asylum.
Thousands of Belarusians have escaped to Poland in recent years to avoid political persecution by President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, which is loyal to Moscow. But Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt went the opposite way.
He has asked Lukashenko for “care and protection,” he told Belarusian state news agency BelTA at a press conference last week.
Szmydt said he had resigned from the judgeship in protest at unjust Polish policies towards Belarus and Russia. He accused Warsaw of trying to start conflict under the influence of the US and the UK and claimed that he had been persecuted and intimidated because of his views, and the only way out for him was to flee the country.
Meanwhile, the Polish public prosecutor’s office has accused Szmydt of involvement in a disinformation war against Poland. On Thursday, the country’s Supreme Court suspended his duties and lifted his immunity as a judge. Daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported he would soon be a wanted man and under investigation for espionage, among other things. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Szmydt a “traitor.”
Kneejerk reaction: sounds a whole hell of a lot like the quisling GOP bullshit we’re dealing with in the states.
Anyone from Poland around here who can offer some additional context? I don’t mean to apply the cookie-cutter American lens here, but it does seem like the same cause and effect.
U.S. judges don’t have to defect to Russia, though. They have a whole Republican pipeline that goes straight there.
Just to be clear: I engage in hyperbole probably more than I should, but I think the seriousness of the topic behooves us all to be as unambiguous as possible on this topic.
Pole here. I am exposed to US political news in every English- speaking medium, especially though Lemmy now and Reddit in the past.
I don’t know if this is planned or by accident but it looks like US is very efficient in exporting their political bullshit and playbooks to other countries.
Applying the American lens to current events here could give you a conclusions not far from the „ground truth”. Strange.
For what it’s worth, there a lot of American exports that we’ve foisted upon the word that I consider incredibly destructive, and it upsets me.
I know I’m privileged for being born here, as a white dude, to an upper middle class family in the 80s. I’ve measurably benefited from it. It distresses me how much that matters. It shouldn’t matter that much.
“Why”?
Seems pretty clear that the guy is a literal fascist and/or has swallowed the propaganda disinformation of literal fascists.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Thousands of Belarusians have escaped to Poland in recent years to avoid political persecution by President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime, which is loyal to Moscow.
The case highlights how Poland has become a target for Russian spying and has left local politicians arguing over who is to blame for a judiciary that could be infiltrated by foreign intelligence.
Szmydt had been a judge at the Warsaw District Administrative Court since 2011, where he dealt with sensitive security issues, including appeal proceedings involving civil servants who were denied access to classified information.
He was also head of the legal department of the National Council of the Judiciary — a body controlled by the national-conservative government under the Law and Justice (PiS) party, which was supposed to manage and discipline judges.
One month ahead of European elections, in which the two political blocs are running neck-and-neck, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and opposition leader Jarosław Kaczynski (PiS) are blaming each other for the scandal.
Belarusian President Lukashenko himself has now also commented on the case, telling state news agency BelTA that he would consider Szmydt’s asylum request, and that he had asked police to do everything possible so that “these scoundrels from Poland do not kill this man.”
The original article contains 491 words, the summary contains 203 words. Saved 59%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
