Tomasz Schmidt, a senior Polish judge loyal to the former PiS (ECR) government, applied for political asylum in Belarus on Monday, citing an act of “protest against Poland’s unjust and harmful policies” against Moscow and Minsk.
on monday, Letter published to XSchmidt said he would “immediately” resign from his position as a judge at the Warsaw Administrative Court in protest against “unjust and harmful policies of the authorities of the Republic of Poland” towards Belarus and Russia.
“This is also an act of protest against activities aimed at pushing our country into a direct military conflict with the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation,” the judges said in a letter to the court’s president, Jacek Klebny. .
The letter also appeals to Polish authorities to “normalize and regulate good-neighborly relations” with both Minsk and Moscow, he added.
Speaking at a news conference in Minsk, Schmidt praised Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for running a “prosperous country” but criticized the Polish government, which is under the influence of the United States and Britain.
The judge’s decision drew outrage from both Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government and President Andrzej Duda’s office.
Anyone who defectes from Poland to Belarus in order to defame Poland and the NATO community of which we are a part is “a scoundrel and a traitor,” said Duda’s close aide Stanisław Jarin.
Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski acknowledged that Schmidt’s announcement was “shocking information” and that it was difficult for him to comment.
Aspects of PiS
2019, Polish Press Onet revealed that Schmidt was part of an informal group of judges discussing ways to discredit judges who were disloyal to the former PiS government, and the scandal was later dubbed ‘Hattergate’.
He then switched sides and went public in 2022 to expose what he deemed unethical behavior by pro-government judges, but some members of the current Tusk government have refused to accept his asylum application in Belarus. considers it a blot on PiS’s record.
“Who needs proof of which team PiS is on?” Deputy Defense Minister Cézary Tomczyk of the Citizens United (KO, EPP) party I wrote to Xadded that the judge’s request for Minsk “is not only an embarrassment for Poland, but also a real threat to national security.”
Poland’s policy towards Russia has been fairly consistent regardless of who is in power, although Tusk’s KO and PiS have accused each other of siding with the Kremlin against Warsaw’s interests.
“West or East? Europe or Russia? KO or PiS? These are the choices facing Poland today,” Tusk said. Posted in X On Monday afternoon, he mentioned the upcoming European elections.
“Every day we learn more facts that support the meaning of these elections. No one should turn a blind eye anymore,” he added.
(Aleksandra Krzysztošek | Euractiv.pl)
