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Ukrainian probe into Open Dialogue group confirms Poland was right to react: expert

PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk 12.10.2018 13:11
A reported probe by the Security Service of Ukraine into the Poland-based Open Dialogue Foundation confirms that authorities in Warsaw were right to treat the group’s head as a security threat, an expert has said.
Image: geralt/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative CommonsImage: geralt/pixabay.com/CC0 Creative Commons

Ukrainian activist Lyudmyla Kozlovska, the head of the foundation, is accused of treason and other crimes in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian non-government anti-corruption website Stopkor.

Security expert Łukasz Kister was cited as saying by Poland’s wpolityce.pl website in an interview: “The investigation by the Security Service of Ukraine into Kozlovska is a Ukrainian gift for our authorities…”

'Not a political whim'

He added: “We have received confirmation that the decisions of the Polish authorities and security services are not a political whim.

"Perhaps we will be able to convince our European partners that Ms. Kozlovska is a threat to EU security, that this is an attempt by foreign secret services to impact the security and policies of the EU.”

According to the Stopkor website, Kozlovska committed treason, tried to undermine "constitutional order," incited attempts to change Ukraine's national borders, and conspired with and abetted others to commit such crimes.

She is expected to be tried on October 15, according to the website.

In August, Kozlovska was expelled from the Schengen area after her name appeared in the area's border control system.

According to reports, Poland put her name in the Schengen Information System after the country’s Internal Security Agency negatively reviewed Kozlovska’s application to reside in the European Union long-term.

Kozlovska has since re-entered the Schengen area several times, on the invitation of politicians in Berlin and Brussels, to speak to the Bundestag and the European Parliament about the rule of law in Poland, according to reports.

'Mocking Poland'

Kister was cited as saying by Poland’s wpolityce.pl website as saying: “Perhaps the Ukrainians, seeing how Western Europe is treating Polish secret services and the Polish government, and how it is mocking our policies, have decided to show that the actions of our authorities and secret services were not unfounded after all.

"And that what we are seeing from Germany, France and Belgium is unacceptable and generally threatens European security, not only the security of Poland and Ukraine.”

He added that Western European countries “are mocking Poland by accepting Kozlovska … in their parliaments, and listening to her as a very credible source of information about the rule of law in our country. That's interesting, because until now the whole of Europe didn’t give a hoot about her…”

Warsaw and Brussels are locked in a protracted standoff over the rule of law after Poland’s governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party introduced a slew of changes to the country's judiciary.

(pk/gs)

Source: wpolityce.pl

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