Officers of the interior safety Agency detained 28-year-old Viktor Z., a citizen of the Republic of Poland, suspected of spying for Russian intelligence.
The detention was carried out on 4 June at the orders of a prosecutor from the Mazovian Department of abroad Prosecutor's Office. At the same time, respective sites in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Voivodeship were searched.
The detainee heard allegations concerning the submission of readiness to cooperate with Russian intelligence, as well as the actual action on his behalf by collecting and transmitting information. According to investigators, the data concerned, among others, the operation of objects of strategical importance for the defence of Poland. Their disclosure could be a real threat to the safety of the state.
At the request of the prosecutor, the court applied a preventive measurement to the fishy in the form of 3 months' interim detention. Victor Z. Z. is facing no little than 8 years in prison, and a maximum conviction of life imprisonment. The charge was based on Article 130 § 2 of the Criminal Code, which concerns spy activities against the Republic of Poland.
The investigation is conducted by the ABW delegation in Bydgoszcz under the supervision of the Mazowieckie Branch of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office. As the service emphasizes, the proceedings carried out effectively discontinued the further activity of the suspect, which could endanger key elements of Poland's defence infrastructure.
This is another specified case since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Only in the last 2 years has the ABW detained 44 people suspected of cooperating with Russian or Belarusian peculiar services. Russia consistently carries out intelligence activities against NATO states, and Poland, due to its position and function in supporting Ukraine, is highly on the list of its objectives.
The Viktor Z. case is further proof that Russian intelligence attempts to get data not only through agent networks, but besides through individual recruits – frequently young people with access to method or infrastructure information. Polish services consistently respond, eliminating possible threats at an early stage.
