State prosecutor: court arrest warrant for Tomasz Szmydt will let us issue wanted notice

The National Public Prosecutor's Office said on Monday it asked a Warsaw district court to issue an arrest warrant for former judge Tomasz Szmydt. It added a temporary arrest warrant is needed first in order for a wanted notice to be issued.

National Public Prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk was asked by TVN24 when such a notice would be issued.

"We are waiting for a court decision regarding a temporary arrest warrant for Tomasz Szmydt. The case files will return to the prosecutor. I'm certain the prosecutor will immediately issue a wanted notice," he said.

"This will also result in an international wanted notice for the suspect."

Asked about the chances of Szmydt's return to Poland, he replied that "we know how Polish-Belarusian relations look like, we are aware of the regime ruling over there, of the close ties with Russia".

"I don't think the wanted notice will be carried out very quickly. Yet it has to be issued. If suspect Szmydt decides to leave the territory of Belarus, he will be immediately detained," Korneluk said.

"Let's not delude ourselves that he will be detained at the Russian-Belarusian border, but there are still other possibilities - he could be arrested for instance if he leaves the territory of Belarus," he added.

Korneluk was also asked whether the investigators were looking into what cases Szmydt had heard at the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw.

"The range of actions that are to be carried out is wide," he said, adding that the former judge had heard 1,100 cases.

The prosecutor added those had not been ordinary cases. "Those were hearings of appeals against the ABW chief's decisions denying access to classified information."

In his view, "most certainly this intelligence is an object of interest of foreign services, especially those inimical to Poland".

Korneluk said the cases Szmydt had presided over also pertained to private businesspeople who had filed for security clearance and had been denied.

The state prosecutor was also asked if the case could be a part of the larger whole when it comes to foreign services recruiting spies in Poland.

"We're not ruling anything out. Various kinds of hypotheses are being considerd," he replied.

Tomasz Szmydt fled to Belarus and on May 6 asked the Belarusian authorities for "care and protection". He said at a press conference in Minsk he was forced to leave Poland because he was opposed to actions of the Polish government.

On May 9, the disciplinary court of the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) lifted judge Szmydt's immunity and allowed for his arrest and temporary detention. The following day, the National Public Prosecutor's Office charged Szmydt with espionage.