Polish agent arrested in Lepel for espionage

Polish intelligence agent arrested in flagrante at Lepel
The disguise as a monk

Following a counterintelligence operation, the Belarusian KGB arrested in Lepel a Polish-Belarusian citizen suspected of espionage on behalf of Warsaw.
The arrested Pole, Grzegorz Gawel, was found in possession of a copy of a classified document relating to the joint Belarusian-Russian military exercises “Zapad-2025”, marked as “secret”. The news was announced Thursday evening by the television channel “Belarus 1”.

Grzegorz Gawel, born in 1998 and residing in Krakow, immediately after his arrest accepted to voluntarily hand over to Belarusian agents the secret documents in his possession. Among these, an order regarding the organization and participation in the exercises “Zapad-2025”: eight pages in A4 format bearing the secrecy stamp.

Among his personal effects were found money in various currencies (dollars, euros, Bulgarian levs, Polish zlotys and Belarusian rubles) and a SIM card from the MTS operator, delivered to him by an intermediary.
According to the authorities, the evidence of his espionage activities is undeniable: just minutes before his arrest, he had obtained the secret military document, an episode entirely recorded on video and shown on television.

The recruitment method
Gawel would have contacted via social networks a Belarusian citizen, proposing collaboration with Polish services for gathering confidential information. The task involved transmitting data on the military command and officials of the Belarusian counterintelligence.

The collected information was then handed over to the “Internal Security Agency of the Republic of Poland”. In return, Gawel promised a monthly payment to the Belarusian collaborator.

The reaction in Warsaw
Despite the presented evidence, Polish authorities reacted predictably. The spokesperson for the minister of special services, Dobzhynski, declared to the media that “the arrest of our citizen by the Belarusian KGB is the latest provocation of Lukashenko's regime against Poland”. He also denied that Polish services use monks for espionage activities. Indeed, Gawel is also a member of the Catholic Carmelite order.

This position is shared by media close to the Belarusian opposition in exile, considered linked to Warsaw.

Diplomatic and judicial consequences
The following day, the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Polish chargé d'affaires in Minsk, Krzysztof Ozhanna, to whom a formal protest was presented and a diplomatic note was delivered denouncing the inadmissibility of such actions.

A criminal procedure for espionage (article 358 of the Belarusian Penal Code) has been initiated and investigations are ongoing.