Spying in favor of Russia: 14 citizens of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia were convicted in Poland

In Poland, the Lublin Voivodeship Court found 14 citizens of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia guilty of espionage in favor of Russia. Two more will be tried separately, UNN reports with reference to RAP.

A Lublin court sentenced 14 foreigners to ranging from 1 year and 1 month to 6 years in prison, fines from 15,000 to 1,000 zlotys and confiscation of the equivalent of the financial benefit received.

Among the convicts are citizens of Ukraine: 19-year-old Bohdan S. from Poltava, 19-year-old Artem A. from Kherson, 23-year-old Dmytro S. from from Melitopol, 33-year-old Roman Z. from Mykolaiv, 18-year-old Rostislav K., 29-year-old Andriy P. and 26-year-old Oleksiy P. from Kryvyi Rih, 24-year-old Vadym M. from Vinnytsia, 44-year-old Yaroslav B. from Dolyna and 17-year-old Bohdan K. from Dubno. The court also found guilty two Belarusians from Minsk: 39-year-old Mikhail A. and 19-year-old student Maria M., and 20-year-old Russian hockey player Maxim S.

The convicts - with the exception of Mikhail A., Yaroslav B., and Maria M. - also have to pay 5,000 PLN to the Victims' and post-penitentiary assistance.

"All the defendants were charged with "All the defendants were charged with the crime of espionage, and a significant number were also charged with organized criminal group," said Judge Yaroslav Kovalsky, in his justification of the verdict.

"There is no doubt that the defendants acted with for financial gain in the broad sense of the word and in the sense of the Criminal Code," he added.

"Since the defendants, having filed a motion for a guilty verdict without a trial and the imposition of them a specific punishment, thereby did not challenge this state of affairs, in this situation, there was no need to conduct detailed evidentiary proceedings," the judge said.

He noted that the verdicts were in line with the written motion that was submitted to the court along with the indictment.

The judge noted that among the convicts are also 17-year-old Artur M. from the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, who was a minor at the time of the crime he was a minor at the time of the crime. He was subject to measures provided for in the The Law on the Support and Rehabilitation of Minors.

The judge separated the case of of defendants Maksim L. and Vladislav P., who withdrew their motion for to be sentenced without a trial. Their case will be considered under the general rules.

The judge reminded that the court had recently extended the the defendants' pre-trial restraint in the form of detention until the end of February.

At the same time, the court banned them from traveling outside the the country and ordered the confiscation of their passports.

The defendants did not appear at the announcement of the verdict, they were were represented by lawyers.

During the court hearing, some of the lawyers asked the court not to cancel the temporary arrest of their clients and to allow them to to serve their sentences in Poland.

Prosecutor Piotr Lopatinski of the Lublin regional prosecutor's office told reporters after the verdict was announced that he was was completely satisfied with the court's decision. "We are dealing with a modern, perhaps unknown way of conducting and organizing a spy network in the country," - he said.

As the prosecutor wrote in the indictment, the accused were involved in the activities of foreign intelligence, namely the V Service of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, directed against Poland.

An investigation by the Internal Security Agency, conducted under the supervision of the Lublin Office of the National Prosecutor's Office, revealed that the suspects were active at least from January to June 2023 in Biała Podlaska, Kholm, Medyka, Przemyśl, Rzeszow, Gdańsk and other settlements across the country. locations across the country.

The defendants - and at least a dozen others - were carried out orders received via the instant messaging service Telegram from an "unidentified man who introduced himself as "Andrey", "Andrzej" or "Gabriel K.", as well as other individuals who used several different nicknames, such as Barbados, Pink, Mara, Secret Chat.

"Managing the activities of the groups, "Andrei planned to derail a train with military vehicles on the on the territory of Poland and Ukraine. To this end, he was looking for people among the group members and outside the group, who would undertake this task for a for a reward of $10,000," the indictment reads.