WARSAW, Poland — A disciplinary court in Poland on Thursday lifted the immunity of a judge who fled the country to neighboring Belarus, an autocratic ally of Russia, paving the way for an international arrest warrant for him on espionage allegations.
Poland launched an investigation this week after Belarus media said the judge, Tomasz Szmydt, arrived in the country and asked for protection. Politicians in Poland, which is a NATO and European Union country, vowed to take immediate steps to strip Szmydt of his immunity as a judge, remove him from his post and take actions to bring him to justice.
Justice Minister Adam Bodnar said that stripping him of immunity allows for posting an international arrest warrant for Szmydt through Interpol. Even if Belarus ignores it, the warrant would restrict Szmydt’s ability to travel.
Szmydt was notorious in Poland for having engaged in a 2019 online smear campaign against some other judges that was sponsored by the Justice Ministry under the previous right-wing government.
According to Belarus state media, Szmydt told reporters in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, that he was forced to leave Poland because he did not agree with the line of the new, pro-Western government.
Deputy justice minister in the new government, Arkadiusz Myrcha, said in parliament on Thursday that answers are needed about Szmydt’s swift rise under the previous government and why he had access to sensitive information.
The defection came as a shock in Poland, which supports Ukraine in its war against Russia’s aggression and which historically has relations of distrust with Russia.
Poland’s prosecutors have opened an investigation and Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Tuesday called for a special meeting of the secret services to discuss alleged Russian and Belarusian infiltration after Szmydt’s defection.
