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Belarus said on Monday that a Polish judge had crossed the border of Moscow’s close ally, with which Poland has strained relations, to seek political asylum, news that shocked Warsaw.

Relations between Warsaw and Minsk have been strained for years due to a political crackdown in Belarus and the migrant crisis, but they have reached new lows after authoritarian President Aliaksandr Lukashenka backed the Kremlin’s offensive in Ukraine.

The state news agency “Belta” reported that Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt asked autocrat A.Lukashenko for political asylum.

“This is an act of protest against Poland’s policy towards Belarus and Russia,” T. Szmydt said at a press conference in Belarus, quoted by Belta.

Szmydts was close to the former ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, which ceded power to the current centrist coalition at the end of last year.

“Returning to Poland would mean detention for me on a fabricated espionage case,” he said in a video released by Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency.

“It used to be difficult, but now it’s a matter of life and death,” he said.

Warsaw officials did not hide their surprise at this news.

“Frankly, I am shocked,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters.

“We’ve had a traitor before, I think it’s a similar case,” he added.

R. Sikorski meant the Polish soldier Emil Czeczko, who defected to Belarus in 2021. Minsk officials said he was found dead in March 2022.

Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said he was waiting for a report on Szmydt and indicated that Warsaw would investigate his previous activities in the NATO country.

“If someone chooses Belarus, then for what interests did he work in Poland for many years, on whose behalf?” – asked W. Kosiniaks-Kamyszas.

“Looking for protection where Aliaksandr Lukashenka reigns is not a natural direction,” he reflected.

Polish prosecutors said later on Monday they had opened an investigation into espionage after one judge fled to neighboring Belarus and sought political asylum.

Prosecutors wrote on the X social network that they are “conducting an investigation related to information that the judge requested political asylum in Belarus,” citing an article of the Criminal Code that deals with espionage.