Polish prosecutors have drafted charges against two Ukrainian men accused of carrying out last weekend’s sabotage attacks on the rail network, confirming that the suspects fled to Belarus on Sunday.
Prosecutors say they have ample evidence that Oleksandr K. and Yevhenii I. committed acts of terrorist sabotage on behalf of Russian intelligence.
While the National Prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that it has issued a decision to charge the duo, they have not been charged in person, given they have left the country.
Dariusz Korneluk, who heads the prosecutor’s office, told private station TVN24 that officials had kicked off the procedures needed to secure international cooperation in pursuing the suspects.
The charges relate to events over the weekend in which a rail line some 90 kilometers south of Warsaw was damaged in an explosion, while elsewhere on the same line investigators found evidence of tampering on the tracks and broken overhead cables.
The charges relate to events over the weekend in which a rail line south of Warsaw was damaged in an explosion, while elsewhere on the same line investigators found evidence of tampering on the tracks and broken overhead cables.
Investigations into the incidents have yielded sufficient witness testimony, telecoms data, video footage, and documentary evidence to indicate a “high probability” of guilt, the prosecution service said.
Wednesday’s statement said the two men, whose surnames have been withheld under privacy laws, had caused a “direct danger of catastrophe” involving a large-scale threat to life and property.
Other suspects have been detained in the case but have not been charged, prosecutors added. Earlier, a government spokesperson said security services had detained several people, warning that the case was developing rapidly and further arrests were possible.
What are the charges?
According to prosecutors, the proposed charges against the two men who fled to Belarus relate to espionage, perpetrating a potential catastrophe and the use of explosives.
Oleksandr K., who was born in 1986, and Yevhenii I., born in 1984, had the intention of sowing fear and destabilizing society, officials said. If they are ever formally charged, they could be imprisoned for life.
Prosecutors confirmed that the accusations are connected to the two incidents that occurred over the weekend.
One involved damage to railway tracks near Mika station in Garwolin county caused by “a C4 explosive” which was detonated under a passing freight train at 8:58 p.m. on Saturday, 15 November.
The second incident involved “damage to the overhead contact line” above tracks near Puławy in Lublin region, prosecutors said, as well as “the installation of two specially constructed metal elements” on the railway. These were allegedly meant to “pose a threat to passing trains.”
Prosecutors are now seeking a court decision ordering the men’s arrest and pre-trial detention, prosecutor Korneluk said, after which they can be placed on an international wanted list and eventually be subject to an Interpol Red Notice.
This is an international alert issued at the request of a member country asking law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a suspect.
The incidents have provoked a political furor in Poland, with Prime Minister Donald Tusk calling the dual attack “an unprecedented act of sabotage aimed at the security of the Polish state and its citizens.”