Poland accuses lawyer of spying for Russia
“Stanislav Sh.” may get a prison sentence of up to ten years in Poland for cooperating with the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian Federation, radio Zet reported. The indictment on this case was filed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The man known as “Stanislav Sh.” is likely Stanislav S. Shipov, former lawyer of one of the Warsaw law firms and son of Sergey Shipov, the former Soviet-era football goalkeeper, who moved to Poland with his family in 1991. Stanislav is officially accused of cooperating with foreign intelligence directed against the Republic of Poland.
On the 17th of October 2014, the District Court of Warsaw issued an arrest warrant for the Polish-Russian citizen for three months. As the investigation proceeded, the detention was further extened by the court.
The initial arrest took place at the request of the Appellate Public Prosecutor’s Office. Polish law prescribes a penalty of one to ten years in prison for such acts.
On the same day, the District Military Court in Warsaw arrested Lieutenant Colonel Zbigniew Y. from the Ministry of Defense of Poland. He was also accused of cooperating with foreign intelligence. According to Polish law, such acts are punishable by imprisonment with a term of 3 to 15 years.
Zbigniew and Stanislav were military and civilian, respectively, yet both worked for the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate. The agents never interacted with each other directly, despite the fact that their cases were linked. The annual report of the Internal Security Agency of Poland for 2014 notes that Russian espionage activity against Poland remained high in the country.