The Internal Security Agency of Poland announced Monday that it initiated an investigation into former judge Szmydt Tomasz, who fled to Belarus and claimed asylum earlier that day. The investigation is regarding the former judge’s access to classified information. Tomasz communicated his resignation from a Warsaw Provincial Administrative Court in a press conference run by Belarus state media.

Tomasz was appointed a judge in 2012, and was on holiday leave at the time that he fled. When reports of Tomasz’s request for political asylum surfaced, the Provincial Administrative Court announced that it had requested the Supreme Court Administrative Office commence disciplinary proceedings for breach of professional ethics rules in the Law on the Organization of the Common Courts. The court also confirmed that the National Prosecutor’s Office was investigating Tomasz for breaches of Poland’s criminal code.

The decision to seek asylum was intended to be a protest against Poland’s policies towards Belarus and Russia. Tomasz believes that authorities in Poland are pushing for war with Russia under the influence of the US and UK.

After hearing the news, Poland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs Radosław Sikorski called Tomasz a traitor.

Tomasz was involved in a 2019 scandal in which he was a part of a Whatsapp group called Kasta. The group, which involved the Deputy Minister for Justice at the time, discussed ways of defaming judges that opposed judicial reforms introduced by the Law and Justice Party (PiS). The reforms implemented by PiS were found to breach the rule of law by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) by undermining the independence of Poland’s courts. This resulted in the highest daily fine ever issued by the CJEU. On Monday, the European Commission announced that it has ended its proceedings against Poland, citing the current governments efforts to improve judicial independence.