The prosecutor's office is investigating activists. “Money from collections financed human trade”

The District Prosecutor's Office in Hajnówka (Podlasie) published information about the supplementation of the evidence application, which she submitted to the case of activists involved in humanitarian aid on the border with Belarus. They are accused of facilitating migrants with unlawful stay in Poland. – It is necessary to hear another witness, it is possible in June to end the trial – the court decided.

The prosecutor's office also applies to the court to appoint experts to assess this new evidence. The next trial is scheduled for Wednesday.

In the opinion of the prosecutor's office, additional evidence submitted by her to the files of this case justifies a change in the qualifications of acts accused of accused – from facilitating the stay in Poland to the organization of migrants illegal crossing of the border “jointly and in agreement with each other and with other undetermined persons.” This is a more severe qualification than the indictment contained in the indictment.

On Wednesday, the court listened to three witnesses, including two people – women of Kurdish origin – using a teleconference with a court in Germany. He decided that the new evidence of the prosecutor's office, in the opinion of which there are circumstances to change the legal qualification to a more severe, he would recognize at the next hearing – at the end of June.

This is a conclusion, among others for the appointment of an expert from the Internal Security Agency, that he would examine the content of secured phones in the case. The prosecutor's office wanted the court to give her five months to prepare such an opinion. The District Court in Hajnówka did not make the decision on this application, he only took into account another – for hearing another SG officer.

At the same time, the court announced that at the next hearing – planned at the end of June – it is very likely that the court cord will be closed and the parties will give final speech. Then a maximum of two weeks later a sentence would be passed.

New evidence regarding activists?

On Tuesday, a message on the prosecutor's evidence appeared on the website of the District Prosecutor's Office in Bialystok. A copy of the evidence applied to the court was also attached to the message at the end of April. As reported, in a letter to the case file, the prosecutor's office in Hajnówka presented the justification of the applications that were submitted by the prosecutor at the last hearing.

Additional evidence comes from the investigation of the Lublin Department of the National Prosecutor's Office. According to the information that Magdalena Rutyna from the District Prosecutor's Office in Hajnówka provided before the court on April 15, these are screenshots and voice recordings from internet messengers from a phone found in the car. Two of the accused five were to go.

The prosecutor said that in these conversations there are e.g.

• about instructions for migrants,
• what routes are to choose to get to Western Europe safely and fastest,
• what amounts are charged for transport,
• or how to present your situation to the services after detention.

She also talked about the correspondence of one of the accused with the person whom the prosecutor described as the organizer of smuggling people.

“The accused in a conversation with the organizer declares the possibility of paying + couriers + from money from Poles, which were transferred as donations to help migrants. Heavily earned money by Poles, which they donated, according to their conviction to the right purpose, were in fact transferred to financing human trafficking and organizing illegal crossing of the border,” said prosecutor.

What exactly is the process about?

Five people correspond to the trial based on the indictment of the Hajnów District Prosecutor's Office. Initially, investigators charged them with aid in March 2022 in the illegal crossing of the Polish-Belarusian border (he threatens to eight years in prison) by an Egyptian and a family from Iraq.

After a two -year investigation, the prosecutor's office changed these allegations and in such a version the indictment was made to the court. One person accused, among others That she provided migrants with food and clothes when they were in the woods. It was also to provide them with information useful in the event of arrest, give shelter and provide rest. The other four accused that they transported these foreigners deep into the country.

In the opinion of the prosecutor's office, activists acted to achieve personal benefits by the people they helped. The accused do not admit, they ensure that it was about helping migrants for humanitarian reasons. The accusation of them, and then referring to the Court of the indictment, met with protests of organizations carrying humanitarian aid in connection with the migration crisis on the border with Belarus.

The trial takes place before the District Court in Hajnówka, but takes place in the District Court Hear Hall in Bialystok; The point is that the Hajnowski court does not have a large room to accommodate a large group of journalists and the audience. The next hearings are accompanied by solidarity actions with the accused, taking place in front of the court building. (PAP)

ROF/ AGZ/