Emil Ciecko, a Polish soldier who defected to Belarus claiming being distraught over treatment of migrants at the Belarus-Poland border, has been charged with desertion, Polish prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday
WARSAW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st December, 2021) Emil Ciecko, a Polish soldier who defected to Belarus claiming being distraught over treatment of migrants at the Belarus-Poland border, has been charged with desertion, Polish prosecutor general's office said on Tuesday.
"Emil C., a soldier who fled abroad from Poland last week, is charged with the crime of desertion," the office said in a press release.
According to the statement, the article under which the military man was charged could lead to imprisonment for up to 10 years.
On Thursday, Ciecko was stopped by a Belarusian border guard unit at the Tushemlya frontier post of the Grodno border group. Ciecko told Belarusian soldiers that he was a soldier of the 11th Masurian Artillery Regiment of the 16th Pomeranian Mechanized Division, which was dispatched to protect the Polish border. Belarus' State Border Committee said that the soldier had requested political asylum in Belarus in protest against Warsaw's ill-treatment of asylum seekers.
On Friday, Ciecko told Belarusian media that he witnessed two cases of Polish troops killing volunteers who tried to help migrants at the border.
Thousands of migrants have amassed at Belarus' borders with Poland and other neighboring EU countries since early summer. The Polish border guard recorded around 40,000 attempts of illegal border crossing by the migrants. Poland reinforced its side of the border by dispatching additional troops, heavy military assets and equipment, and building fences. European countries accused Belarus of being responsible for the migration crisis, while Belarus denied the claims, adding that it has "neither strength nor money" to contain the influx of migrants due to sanctions imposed on it.
