Polish trial begins in Huawei-linked China espionage case
/ Our Today
administrator
WARSAW (Reuters)
An espionage trial involving a former Polish secret services agent and an ex-employee of Huawei begins in a Warsaw court as some European states consider whether to exclude the Chinese group’s equipment from their 5G telecom networks.
Poland arrested the two men in January 2019 on suspicion of spying for China, in a move that has ramped up international debate over the potential security risks of using Huawei equipment in communications networks.
Huawei has repeatedly denied its equipment can be used for espionage by authorities in Beijing, but the United States has been pressuring countries to ban it. In Europe, only Britain and Sweden have so far done so.
Polish prosecutors allege that Wang Weijing, 39, using the cover of being a Huawei executive, spent more than seven years spying for China trying to bolster the company’s ability to influence the Polish government and “enable it to… manage the state… technology infrastructure”, court documents show.
Wang, who has been in detention since his arrest, is also charged with recruiting a former Polish secret service agent who, prosecutors say, informed him about ways of influencing the country’s rescue and public safety services radio networks.
‘NO EVIDENCE OF ANYTHING ILLEGAL’
The Polish defendant, Piotr D. had worked for years in the top echelons of government, and is accused of “offering himself as a source of information” regarding public administration.
Both men deny any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say that the cybersecurity specialist, who has asked that his last name be withheld under privacy rules, informed Wang of a monitoring system to guard against intruders accessing classified information sent through fibre optic communication networks created by Warsaw military university.
Wang’s lawyer, Bartlomiej Jankowski, said prosecutors had no proof of any spying activity by his client.
“There is no evidence of anything illegal,” he told Reuters.
Huawei, which fired Wang after his arrest but has helped finance his legal fees, told Reuters in a statement last month that its activities are “in accordance with the highest standards of transparency and adherence to laws and regulation”.
Comments