Court remands 31-year-old. Charge: espionage in the military

Remand for a 31-year-old student of a WAM course

Three months of temporary remand. Such a decision regarding the detained 31-year-old was made on Monday, October 19, by the Military Garrison Court in Warsaw. The man holds Polish and Ukrainian citizenship; at the time of detention he held the rank of senior private in the reserve and was participating in one of the courses at the Military Medical Academy in Łódź. The charge is Article 130(3) of the Criminal Code and other acts.

The detention took place on Friday, October 16. It was carried out by soldiers from the Military Gendarmerie Unit in Łódź, acting on the basis of a decision by the Prosecutor of the Military Affairs Division of the Łódź-Polesie District Prosecutor's Office. The provision cited by the services covers declaring readiness to act on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against Poland or an allied state, as well as collecting and storing information with the intent to pass it to a foreign intelligence service. This carries a penalty of six months to eight years' imprisonment.

Charge under Article 130(3) of the Criminal Code

Article 130(3) of the Criminal Code does not require proof that someone actually passed secrets to a foreign intelligence service. It is enough to declare readiness to act on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland or an allied state. Merely collecting or storing information for the purpose of passing it on is also punishable.

The Military Gendarmerie in a statement of October 19 indicated that the detention was made in connection with suspicion of committing a crime under Article 130(3) of the Criminal Code "and others." Three months of remand is a preventive measure, not a sentence.

The Gendarmerie did not disclose what specific actions the detainee was alleged to have committed or on behalf of which state or service he was allegedly acting. Deputy Minister of National Defence Cezary Tomczyk said on Polsat News that the man "unambiguously presented himself as someone who identifies a certain type of installations in the Polish Armed Forces." He noted that the circumstances of possible espionage activity would be clarified by the prosecutor's office.

Service operation and items found on the detainee

The detention of the 31-year-old in Łódź was the result of work by the Military Counterintelligence Service. As "Rzeczpospolita" was first to report, it was SKW that was working on the man before Military Gendarmerie soldiers entered on Friday, acting on the orders of the prosecutor from Łódź-Polesie.

The newspaper's unofficial findings say more about the detainee himself. At the time of detention, the services were said to have found on him several mobile phones, sets of documents, stamps, a significant amount of money in various currencies, and gold. The Military Gendarmerie did not specify exactly how many devices there were or what amount was involved. Information about the items was not officially confirmed.

This is not the first such case this year. In February, the Military Gendarmerie together with SKW detained a long-time civilian employee of the Ministry of National Defence who was accused of cooperating with Belarusian services. At the turn of March and April, the Internal Security Agency detained a soldier of the Territorial Defence Forces from Poznań on suspicion of espionage, but the court did not agree to remand.

The Military Medical Academy in Łódź, where the detainee was training, was established on July 1, 2026, on the basis of the Military Medical Training Centre. It educates military medical personnel: doctors, nurses, paramedics, and pharmacists.

Sources

Article prepared with the help of artificial intelligence based on: Do Rzeczy, Interia Fakty, Defence24. Facts checked automatically against these sources. The Wiadomości PRO newsroom is responsible for this publication.