Former #Poland judge Tomasz Szmydt asked for an asylum in #Belarus claiming he was discriminated for his political position and disagreement towards “unfriendly relations with Belarus”. Szmydt is a former husband of Emilia Szmydt, main suspect in the “hater scandal” where a group of PiS-nominated judges, lawyers and activists performed coordinated bullying against judiciary officials who didn’t want to comply with PiS party line.
By the way, the last #Poland defector to #Belarus was Emil Czeczko, a Polish low-rank soldier, who illegally crossed the border into Belarus in 2021 and asked for an asylum. He had a few minor appearances on Belarussian TV shows and hanged himself in 2022 in Minsk (that’s the official Belarussian version).
According to wikipedia:
In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state.
OK in the context of a soldier in war, where you swear such a thing as allegiance, I understand it.
But as a civil servant isn't that just an overblown way of saying he quit his job and left the country (neither of which is illegal in Poland I presume)?
He’s not some clerk, he’s a judge whose rulings included classified cases. Judges are sworn and this is what they declare when they are nominated:
I solemnly swear, as a judge of a common court, to serve the Republic of Poland faithfully, to uphold the law, to perform the duties of a judge conscientiously, to administer justice in accordance with the law, impartially according to my conscience, to observe state and official secrecy, and in my actions to be guided by the principles of dignity and honesty.
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