A senior Polish judge asked for political asylum in Belarus on May 6, citing objections to Poland's policies toward Belarus and Russia.

In his resignation letter released on X, Judge Tomasz Szmydt announced his immediate departure from the Warsaw Administrative Court, saying he was protesting against the actions of the Polish authorities that could potentially lead to military conflict with Belarus and Russia. Szmydt urged Polish authorities to normalise relations with Minsk and Moscow.

Tensions between Poland and Belarus have run high for years now. Warsaw accuses Minsk of orchestrating a border crisis and supporting Russia's actions in Ukraine. Poland is also home to several Belarusian dissidents after Lukashenka suppressed dissent following his contested re-election in 2020.

Appearing at a press conference in Minsk, Szmydt commended President Alyaksandr Lukashenka's leadership, criticising Warsaw for being influenced by the US and the UK.

His move to Minsk drew condemnation in Warsaw. Stanisław Żaryn, an aide to President Andrzej Duda, branded him a "scoundrel and traitor" for defaming Poland and Nato.

Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski called the development “shocking”.

“If someone chooses Belarus, it means that they have been working in Poland for years to advance someone’s interests - whose interests?” Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Poland’s National Public Prosecutor's Office said that it launched a probe into Szmydt’s defection, which, it said, might have been a crime of working for foreign intelligence.

Poland’s counterintelligence agency ABW said on May 6 that it was going to look at “the scope of classified information, which [Szmydt], who requested asylum in Belarus, had access to”.

Szmydt is seen as a judge openly loyal to Poland’s previous government of Law and Justice (PiS). He even spent a brief time working in the Ministry of Justice under the PiS government. 

Polish media reported in 2019 that he was part of a group discussing ways to discredit judges not aligned with the PiS party government. The judge exposed the workings of the group in an interview in 2022.

Szmydt's defection echoes a similar incident in December 2021 when Emil Czeczko, a Polish soldier, fled to Belarus and criticised Poland's handling of the migration crisis on Belarusian state media. Czeczko allegedly died by suicide in Minsk in March the following year.