Polish judge seeks political asylum in Belarus

6 months ago 27

High-level Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt, loyal to the previous PiS (ECR) government, has requested political asylum in Belarus on Monday, calling it an act of “protest against Poland’s unjust and harmful policy” towards Moscow and Minsk.

On Monday, in a letter published on X, Szmydt said he was resigning “with immediate effect” from his position as a judge at the Warsaw Administrative Court in protest at the “unjust and harmful policy by the authorities of the Republic of Poland” towards Belarus and Russia.

“It is also an act of protest against the activities aimed at pushing my country into a direct military conflict with the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation,” the judge said in a letter addressed to the court’s president Jacek Chlebny.

The letter is also an appeal to the Polish authorities “to normalise and regulate good neighbourly relations” with both Minsk and Moscow, he added.

Szmydt appeared at a press conference in Minsk, where he praised Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s regime for running a “flourishing country” while criticising the Polish government for being under the influence of the US and the UK.

The judge’s decision was met with outrage by both the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the office of President Andrzej Duda.

Whoever flees from Poland to Belarus to slander Poland and the NATO community of which we are a part “is a scoundrel and traitor,” commented Duda’s aide Stanisław Żaryn.

Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski admitted Szmydt’s announcement was “shocking information” on which he found it difficult to comment.

The PiS aspect

In 2019, Polish news outlet Onet revealed that Szmydt was part of an informal group of judges who discussed how to discredit judges disloyal to the former PiS government, a scandal later dubbed as ‘Hatergate’.

Although he later switched sides and went public in 2022 to expose what he saw as unethical behaviour by pro-government judges, some members of the current Tusk government see his request for asylum in Belarus as a blot on PiS’ record.

“Does anyone else need evidence of what team PiS is on?” Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk of the Civic Coalition (KO, EPP) party wrote on X, adding that the judge’s request to Minsk was “not only an embarrassment for Poland, but a real threat to national security.”

While Poland’s policy towards Russia has been rather consistent regardless of who is in power, Tusk’s KO and PiS have accused each other of siding with the Kremlin against Warsaw’s interests.

“West or East? Europe or Russia? KO or PiS? These are the choices facing Poland today,” Tusk posted on X on Monday afternoon, referring to the incoming European elections.

“Every day we learn more facts that confirm the meaning of these elections. Let no one pretend any longer not to see it,” he added.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)