On a frigid morning in January, Polish internal security officers entered the Wa...
WARSAW - On a frigid morning in January, Polish internal security officers entered the Warsaw apartment of a foreign businessman, confiscated photographs, seized his electronic devices and detained him. The allegations leveled against him were sensational: An ex-diplomat who speaks Polish, he and a former Polish security official had spied on behalf of a foreign power.
At the G20 summit in Japan last week, Trump said U.S. companies would be allowed to sell some components to Huawei. But he didn’t reverse the de facto ban on using Huawei gear in U.S. networks. Reuters has also learned that Poland’s security services are interested in Durbajlo’s travel to China. And they are looking into his work on a project at a Warsaw military university that involved creating a monitoring system to guard against intruders accessing classified information sent through fiber optic communication networks.
“The danger of using equipment from Chinese companies like Huawei is very real, as recent events in Poland prove,” U.S. Ambassador to Poland Georgette Mosbacher told Reuters, pointing to “the need for all our European allies to take this threat seriously” in building telecom networks. Wang’s lawyer Jankowski, who declined to discuss any of the evidence in the case, believes his client has become collateral damage in America’s war on Huawei. He’s concerned, he says, that his client might remain in jail for at least two years before he’s either freed or indicted. Under Polish law, a suspect can be held in detention for years while authorities continue to investigate.The United States has praised Poland for the arrests of Wang and Durbajlo.
A lawyer for Durbajlo said he didn’t want his client to comment for this story. “We filed a request to overturn the arrest and it was not accepted,” the lawyer said. Wang’s wife declined through a friend to be interviewed. “So as far as I understand, in this respect, from the point of view of the [Polish security] services and prosecutor’s office, the case is unequivocal,” said Duda, who spoke in an interview last month.Wang’s arrest was a stunning twist in a journey to Poland that began nearly two decades ago.
Wang’s hard work paid off. He was one of four students at the university who won a scholarship to go to Poland to study the language in the central city of Lodz, he said. He arrived in the fall of 2001 and studied there for about 10 months. “That was the very beginning of my contact with Poland,” he said.
Wang landed the job and returned to Poland in June 2011. At Huawei, Wang was responsible for handling public affairs as the company worked to expand beyond selling equipment to telecom operators and enter new markets for its technology. People who interacted with Wang said he was an assiduous networker. He was a regular at events hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Warsaw, according to a Chinese business executive. Several people recounted receiving text greetings, or little presents of Chinese tea or calendars from him during Chinese and Polish holidays. Wang’s command of Polish set him apart from his Chinese colleagues, said a former Polish government official.
According to a Polish government official, China’s foreign intelligence services have increased their monitoring of Poland’s economy and politics in an effort to improve the prospects of Chinese businesses by better understanding the local market. “This is something our services have identified and monitored,” the official said.
In 2009, he joined the ISA, where he dealt with telecommunications and cybersecurity and advised the agency’s then-head, Krzysztof Bondaryk, according to a security expert who worked with Durbajlo and Polish media reports. The LinkedIn profile says Durbajlo worked at the ISA for more than four years. There, he had a rare public-facing role.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Report: Vlad Jr., Bell, Santana tabbed for HR DerbyThe Home Run Derby brackets will be announced on Wednesday night, but it appears...
Read more »
Report: C Horford to get 'massive' offer from KingsThe Sacramento Kings are poised to make a 'massive offer' to free agen...
Read more »
Italian report reveals basis for revoking Atlantia road concession: sourceItaly's ruling 5-Star party believes the government has a legal opinion tha...
Read more »
10 best places to vacation around the world, according to U.S. News & World ReportThese are the 10 best places to vacation around the world, according to U.S. News & World Report. (via CNBCMakeIt)
Read more »
Meghan and Harry Want Private Christening for Archie: ReportMeghan Markle and Prince Harry have chosen to forgo another royal tradition made popular over the past few decades by having a private baptism for baby Archie.
Read more »