A Polish court on Tuesday convicted 14 members of a dismantled spy network for preparing acts of sabotage and carrying out intelligence activities for Russia's benefit.
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The defendants were indicted last month on charges including plotting to derail trains carrying aid supplies to neighboring Ukraine and surveillance of military facilities and critical infrastructure in the NATO member country and the EU.
“After examining the case, the court found all the defendants guilty and found that some of them belonged to an organized criminal group,” Judge Jaroslaw Kowalski announced when announcing the verdict.
The judge imposed prison sentences of between one month and six years on the convicts.
The fourteen defendants were not present in the courtroom as they had all pleaded guilty.
The members of the network are “Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians,” Barbara Markowska, spokeswoman for the Lublin court, told AFP.
Two other alleged members of the network, who withdrew their original guilty pleas, will be tried separately.
Among those convicted is Maxim S., a Russian ice hockey player who plays for a Polish club in Sosnowiec. His arrest in June prompted Moscow to express its “strong protest” and demand “full explanations” from Poland.
The group also included “two Ukrainian lawyers and a political scientist, a French teacher, a pharmacy technician (and) a computer engineer,” the Rzeczpospolita daily said.
According to investigators, members of the network received orders through the messaging application Telegram and were paid in cryptocurrencies.
“This is indeed a modern, probably previously unknown way of managing or organizing a spy network in our country,” emphasized prosecutor Piotr Lopatyński.
Polish media reported that the amounts collected ranged from $300 to $10,000.
The facilities monitored by the spies included checkpoints on the border with Ukraine and the main railway routes used to transport weapons and humanitarian aid to the neighboring country.
They also distributed propaganda material that incited hatred against the Ukrainian people.
Poland has been a staunch defender of Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion there in 2022.