Polish judge Szmydt: I am going to appeal to Lukashenko and ask for political asylum, also consulting with a lawyer

Former Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt visited the Polish Embassy in Minsk on May 17th to hand over a package of documents to the Polish Minister of Justice and the Ombudsman. During his conversation with journalists, he explained which norms of Polish law had been violated in the case of his accusation of espionage in favour of Belarus and Russia.

“The right to protection and fair trial have been violated. This is a sort of ‘a hood court’. In reality, I do not understand what I have been accused of. It is only possible to learn about this from the Polish media reports. I want justice to reign. Here, in Minsk, I feel safe,” the man said.

Tomasz Szmydt also shared his plans for the near future, “I have prepared an application to the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General, the Ombudsman with a request for intervention in my affairs due to the fact that there were violations of the Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, and the Constitution of Poland. I am sending these documents again, as I am not sure that they have reached the addressee. I think it is important that they achieve their goal, because the Polish authorities violate the law and do not respect human rights. They are trying to simply destroy a person. These are copies, and we have sent the originals to the mailbox, because there was no other way to deliver them. I also intend to appeal to Belarus’ Head of State [Aleksandr Lukashenko] in the near future and ask for political asylum and protection of the authorities. I first need to consult with a lawyer, as I know Belarusian laws not perfectly well.”

The man added that he would like to retain Polish and obtain Belarusian citizenship ‘if there is such an opportunity from the point of view of the law’.