Poland investigating crime against Belarusian opposition figure

By Alan Charlish

WARSAW (Reuters) - Prosecutors in Poland are investigating a crime targeting leading Belarusian opposition figure Pavel Latushka under sections of the penal code covering homicide and the activities of foreign intelligence networks.

National Prosecutor's Office spokesperson Przemyslaw Nowak told Reuters in an email that an investigation was being conducted together with officers from Poland's Internal Security Agency based in the central city of Lodz.

He declined to give specific details of the events being investigated.

According to a letter from prosecutors to Latushka seen by Reuters, the investigation falls under sections of the penal code which cover inciting others to commit a crime, the activities of foreign intelligence agencies and homicide.

The investigation into a crime against Latushka, a deputy head of the United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus, comes at a time of heightened fears for the safety of Belarusian and Russian opposition figures after an attack on Leonid Volkov, an exiled aide to late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

Volkov suffered injuries from hammer blows in the attack on March 12 outside his home in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital. Two Poles were detained following the attack.

Latushka told Reuters in a written statement that he frequently received threats.

"In the last six months, evidence has mounted of a significant escalation in threats against me and other pro-democracy activists," he said.

"Recently, we have also recorded an intensification of attempts to put pressure on specific members of our team... by individuals posing as KGB officers; they use methods of bribery, blackmail, and threats of reprisals against relatives and friends of our team members."

Poland says that it has become a target for attempts by Russian and Belarusian intelligence services to destabilise the country. In May, a Polish judge with access to military secrets, who asked for asylum in Belarus, was charged with espionage.

The Belarusian embassy in Warsaw did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

The Russian embassy in Warsaw has previously dismissed claims that its secret services are attempting to destabilise Poland as "conspiracy theories".

A former ambassador and culture minister, Latushka supported protests against 2020 presidential elections in Belarus that opponents of President Alexander Lukashenko say were rigged.

In 2023 a Belarusian court sentenced him in absentia to 18 years in prison.

Latushka said he had received information that two attempts on his life had been foiled this year. He did not reveal the source of this information and Reuters was unable to independently verify it.

(Reporting by Alan Charlish; Additional reporting by Anna Wlodarczak-Semczuk; Editing by Peter Graff)