Interpol has refused to issue an international arrest warrant requested by the Polish authorities for ex-judge Tomasz Szmydt, who fled to Belarus. This was reported to the PAP agency by Katarzyna Nowak, a spokeswoman of the Main Commandant’s Office of the Republic’s Police.
The reason for the refusal, she said, was Article 3 of the Interpol Statute, which prohibits the organization from “carrying out any interference or activity of a political, military, religious or racial nature.”
“Interpol refused to issue a red notice against Judge Tomasz Szmydt due to the fact that he does not allow data on actions against the security of the state, which are defined as political crimes, to be transmitted through his channels,” Nowak quotes PAP.
In Warsaw, 55-year-old Shmydt was charged with espionage. Tomasz Szmydt fled to Belarus on May 6. He gave a press conference in Minsk, at which he announced that he intended to ask Belarus for political asylum. Polish intelligence services believe that Schmydt had been in contact with Belarusian intelligence and Russian agents in Poland for several years.