Polish court increases ex-soldier’s sentence to 5.5 years — RMF24
The Court of Appeal in Lublin, Poland, increased the sentence of former serviceman Paweł K. from three and a half to five and a half years in prison. He was convicted of declaring his readiness to cooperate with the Russian intelligence services of the aggressor state and of illegal possession of weapons and ammunition, RMF24 reports.
The prosecutor’s office appealed the previous verdict
The prosecutor’s office requested a sentence of seven years and six months in prison for Paweł K. The court of first instance had previously imposed a combined sentence of three and a half years, but the appellate court found the three-year sentence for declaring readiness to cooperate with Russian intelligence services to be manifestly too lenient.
Judge Artur Achrymowicz noted that the court of first instance had taken significant circumstances of the case into account, but had not given sufficient weight to the general preventive role of punishment. According to him, an offer to cooperate with foreign intelligence under the circumstances of this case cannot be assessed leniently.
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Collecting data on Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport
According to the investigation, from December 2022 to March 2024, the man contacted citizens of the Russian Federation, including Russian army officers who were directly involved in the war against Ukraine, via email and internet messengers. He allegedly stated that he was ready to join military intelligence structures.
Investigators believed that his tasks included collecting and transmitting information about security at Rzeszów-Jasionka Airport. According to the investigation, this information could have been used by Russian intelligence services to plan a possible assassination attempt on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Paweł K. was detained by officers of Poland’s Internal Security Agency in April 2024 in the Lublin Voivodeship. Ammunition was found at his place of residence, among other things. In court, he did not admit to the charges, except for finding the ammunition. The verdict is final.
