Polish prosecutors charge five with alleged espionage.
Prosecutors have charged two Ukrainian and three Belarusian citizens with acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against Poland, the spokesperson for the National Prosecutor's Office has reported.
The Internal Security Agency (ABW), working with police officers, detained the five on November 25 and 26 in Warsaw and Bialystok, northeastern Poland, Przemyslaw Nowak told PAP on Friday.
The detainees were identified as Ukrainian nationals: Oleksandr S. and the minor, Sofia Ch., and Belarusian nationals: Viktoria M., Anton M., and Uladzimir U. (surnames withheld under Polish privacy law).
According to the ABW, the suspects were recruited via a moderator operating on the Telegram messenger app. They are accused of conducting acts of sabotage, including taking and sending photographs of critical infrastructure and locations crucial for national security, as well as hanging posters and creating graffiti. Investigators say they were prepared to carry out further instructions in exchange for payments made from a cryptocurrency wallet, a pattern described as consistent with the modus operandi of Russian intelligence.
Espionage, defined as acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service, is punishable by five to thirty years in prison.
The Lublin district court ordered three months of pre-trial detention for Viktoria M., Oleksandr S. and Anton M. The court placed the minor, Sofia Ch., in a juvenile shelter for three months. Due to poor health, Uladzimir U. was given a non-custodial measure in the form of a ban on leaving the country.
The investigation, led by the Lublin branch of the National Prosecutor's Office, concerns activities carried out from March 2024 to February 2025 in Warsaw, the southeastern city of Rzeszow, the central city of Lodz, and other locations by individuals of various nationalities recruited through online messengers. (PAP)
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