MINSK, September 5. /TASS/. The Belarusian Foreign Ministry has summoned Poland’s charg· d'affaires Krzysztof Ozanna and lodged a strong protest with him in connection with the act of espionage committed by Polish citizen Grzegorz Havel on the territory of the country.
"On September 5, the charg· d'affaires of the Republic of Poland in the Republic of Belarus Krzysztof Ozanna was summoned to the Foreign Ministry. A strong protest was lodged with the Polish diplomat and a corresponding note was handed in connection with the act of espionage committed by a citizen of the Republic of Poland, Grzegorz Havel, on the territory of the Republic of Belarus," the news release reads.
The Polish diplomat was notified that such actions by Warsaw, which grossly violate the principles of good neighborliness and cause serious damage to bilateral relations, are unacceptable, the Foreign Ministry stated.
"The Belarusian side demanded that the Polish side refrain from actions that harm the national security of the Republic of Belarus and return to the mainstream of civilized dialogue and generally accepted forms of interstate communication," the statement reads.
Earlier, the Belarus-1 TV channel reported that the Belarusian State Security Committee detained citizens of Poland and Belarus in the city of Lepel in the Vitebsk region. A Pole identified as Grzegorz Havel was found to have an eight-page A4 printout - a photocopy of a document concerning the Zapad-2025 exercise with a classification stamp. As the TV channel noted, the man was passing the obtained data to Polish secret services. An investigation is currently underway over a criminal case under Article 358 (Espionage) of the Criminal Code of Belarus. Punishment under this article involves imprisonment for a term of 7 to 15 years with or without a fine.