Polish judge flees to Belarus and intends to claim political asylum
Tomasz Szmydt, a judge of the Voivodeship Administrative Court of Warsaw, has appeared at a press conference in Minsk declaring that he wants to stay in Belarus and will be applying for political asylum, as he does not agree with the policy of his country.
Source: BelTA, a Belarusian state-owned news agency, and TASS, a Kremlin-aligned Russian news outlet
Details: At the briefing, Szmydt read out a statement "resigning as a judge" and stating that he plans to claim political asylum because he disagrees with the policy of the Polish authorities, which, he said, "under the influence of the United States and the UK, are leading the country to war".
Szmydt, who said he would like to "show Belarus as he sees it as a foreigner", suggested that citizens of the Baltic states should visit Belarus and see the situation as it really is and not as it is apparently distorted by the media.
He described Belarus as "a country with great potential" and stated that it has "a very wise leader".
Szmydt is reported to have previously held various positions in the Polish judiciary, including head of the legal department at Poland’s National Council of Judges.
Background:
- There was a similar case at the end of 2021 when Polish soldier Emil Czeczko fled to Belarus. He faced 10 years in prison for desertion but was found hanged in March 2022.
- It also became known that he had problems with the law: he had been found guilty of beating and torturing his mother by a Polish court of first instance and could have had his sentence confirmed on appeal before he fled.
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