Warsaw charges criminal group with arsons linked to foreign intelligence
The National Prosecutor's Office has said that arsons in several Polish cities in 2023-2024 were ordered by foreign intelligence services, indicting six members of an organised crime group.
The list of defendants comprised three Poles and three Belarusians: Kamil K., Dawid P., Lukasz K., Stepan K., Andrei B. and Yaraslau S. (full names withheld under Polish privacy laws). According to Przemyslaw Nowak, spokesperson for the National Prosecutor's Office, three of them allegedly stand behind the arson attacks on a restaurant in Gdynia, northern Poland, in 2023.
"This (arson - PAP) brought PLN 3 million (EUR 704,600) in losses," Nowak wrote in the statement published on Wednesday.
In March 2024, Stepan K., Kamil K., Andrei B. and Yaraslau S. orchestrated an attempt to burn one of Gdansk's warehouses under orders from foreign intelligence services, the prosecutors found. Meanwhile, the April 2024 blaze in a pallet storage facility in Marki, located on the outskirts of Warsaw, was carried out by Stepan K. and Andrei B.
"In this case, too, the men were allegedly acting on behalf of foreign intelligence services," the spokesperson wrote.
In addition to the charges of organising and executing acts of sabotage in Poland against the four group members, the indictment also includes offences related to weapons and drug trafficking, along with other criminal activities.
According to Polish law, acts of sabotage orchestrated by a foreign intelligence service are punishable by sentences of 10 years to life in prison.(PAP)
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