A spy at the Ministry of National Defense was charged. He faces life imprisonment for collaborating with foreign intelligence

On Wednesday, a detained employee of the Ministry of National Defense was charged with espionage for a foreign intelligence service. To the District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw A request for his temporary arrest was also submitted to Warsaw. The man faces a penalty of eight years to life imprisonment.

Prosecutor Alicja Szelągowska from the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office announced at a press briefing that the man was placed at the disposal of the court, and from the moment of submitting the application for pre-trial detention, the court has 24 hours to consider the prosecutor's application.

A long-time employee of the Ministry of National Defense was detained on Tuesday morning at the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense. The arrest was carried out by the Military Counterintelligence Service in coordination with the military affairs department of the National Prosecutor's Office and the Military Police.

It was reported on Tuesday that the detained person was a civilian. According to unofficial information from PAP, he was supposed to spy for one of the countries “from the east” and work in the Department of Strategy and Defense Planning of the Ministry of National Defense.

On Wednesday, at a press briefing, prosecutor Alicja Szelągowska announced that the detainee had been charged with espionage, specified in Art. 130 par 2 of the Penal Code. It concerns acting on behalf of foreign intelligence or providing it with information, the transmission of which may cause damage to the Republic of Poland. This act is punishable by imprisonment for not less than 8 years or life imprisonment.

She added that the suspect gave explanations on Wednesday, and the prosecutor's office sent a request to the District Court for the Capital City of Warsaw for the man's temporary arrest. She emphasized that this arrest was necessary to ensure the proper course of proceedings, and the investigation was still ongoing.

– This is not the end of the proceedings, it is one of the stages of preparatory proceedings – said the prosecutor.

She added that the prosecutor's office does not reveal the man's nationality, the intelligence service of which country he was working for, how long he had been working for, or whether he had been previously recorded by the services.

Proc. Szelągowska justified that most of the case files were classified and for these reasons the prosecutor's office would not inform about them. She also refused to provide information about further planned procedural activities in this case.

On Tuesday, the spokesman for the Minister Coordinator of Special Services, Jacek Dobrzyński, informed that the Military Counterintelligence Service had obtained “powerful, incriminating information” confirming that the man was spying for foreign intelligence. When asked what level of information the man had access to, Dobrzyński emphasized that he was not a “high-caliber” person, but a civilian employee.

The Department of the Ministry of National Defense, where – according to PAP sources – the man was supposed to work, runs, among others, a list of facilities that are particularly important for security, and whether it prepares proposals for improving the functioning of the departmental crisis management system within the national and allied systems as well as principles and procedures for increasing the state's defense readiness.

The case of the detained Ministry of National Defense employee was first reported by the Onet portal, according to which the man is a 60-year-old who has been employed at the ministry for over 30 years. (PAP)

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