Polish senior defense officer arrested, allegedly accused of espionage for Russia
On Wednesday a high-ranking official has been arrested by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) on suspicion of spying, the Polish Defense Ministry says. The detainee, a colonel of the Polish army, is known to be an expert in computer networking.
According to an anonymous source, the officer is a ‘big man’ and ‘knows a lot’, tvn24 reports.
The colonel was detained on the ground of materials collected by military counterintelligence, Jacek Sońta, Spokesman for the Defence Ministry, posted on Twitter.
Another source, Poland’s commercial news Radio Zet, reported that two men had been arrested, a colonel in the Polish Army and a lawyer with dual Polish-Russian citizenship. They did not cooperate, Radio ZET says, but it was crucial they be detained at the same time.
Polish media alleged that the defense official was apprehended for spying for Russia and suggested that his arrest was carried out in dramatic fashion by ABW forces inside the headquarters of the Ministry of National Defense, centrally located on Polish capital Warsaw’s Independence Avenue, intelnews.org reports. This claim, which was later confirmed by ABW spokesman Lieut. Col. Maciej Karczyński, likely signifies that the spy suspect was captured in the act of espionage, following an extensive surveillance operation. ABW agents searched Defense Ministry headquarters and seized the arrestee’s computer.
