Rzeczpospolita: Belarusians Detained In Poland Planning Sabotage
16- 30.05.2024, 10:04
- 12,578
In shopping centres, warehouses and restaurants.
Two Belarusians and a Pole, detained in Poland, intended to set fires in shopping centres, restaurants and construction warehouses on the assignment of Russian intelligence. This is reported by the newspaper of Rzeczpospolita.
It is noted that these arrests were made after receiving new results of the investigation conducted by the Lower Silesia branch of the Office for Organised Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office.
According to the newspaper, a Ukrainian hired by the Russians to commit sabotage was first detained in January this year. He planned to set fire to important facilities in Wrocław, including a paint factory. On May 28, three more people were detained (two Belarusians and one Pole). They were also preparing similar sabotage in Poland, and on a larger scale, on the instructions of the Russian Main Directorate of Intelligence. They were promised to be paid 10,000 euros for each destroyed object.
‘The purpose of the arson attacks was to cause chaos, anxiety, intimidation, damage to property and, not excluded, to people,’ the publication notes.
The results of the investigation showed that the detainees tried to set fire to one facility in Gdansk and also set fire to two buildings in Gdynia and near Warsaw.
One Belarusian was detained in Pruszków, where he lived, while the other - in Warsaw. The men are 37 and 35 years old, one of them has a ‘Pole card.’ The third detainee is a 40-year-old Pole, a resident of Pomeranian Voivodeship.
According to the newspaper, the previously detained Ukrainian came to Poland from Germany, he was a member of a larger criminal group, which also included the three recently arrested.
The detainees are accused of ‘participating in an organised criminal group aimed at conducting foreign intelligence activities targeting the Republic of Poland’, in exchange for ‘receiving financial benefits’. The two criminal offences together carry sentences of up to life imprisonment.
