Employee of Chinese tech company’s Polish operations could face up to a decade in jail if convicted, report says
Poland’s counter-intelligence service has arrested a Chinese sales director of tech giant Huawei and a Polish former senior intelligence agent in Warsaw on suspicion of spying, according to media reports in the central European country.
On Friday, China’s foreign ministry expressed grave concerns over the incident and urged Poland to protect the lawful rights of the Chinese detainee.
Polish public broadcaster TVP identified the Huawei employee as the Chinese company’s sales director in Poland, “Weijing W”, also known as Stanislaw Wang.
“Piotr D” was a former high-ranking officer of Poland’s Internal Security Agency, the report quoted a court document of their arrest as saying.
The two men were accused of spying against Poland for China but details of the charges were not released.
ISA officers raided the homes of both suspects on Tuesday morning. They also seized documents and electronic data from the offices of Huawei and mobile phone operator Orange Polska, where Piotr D had worked recently, the TVP report said.
A Chinese diplomatic source told the South China Morning Post that a senior Chinese embassy official contacted the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs offering consular services for the Chinese detainee.
Because he was not covered by diplomatic immunity, Weijing W would remain in detention for at least three months, according to TVP.
