DISINFO: International law expert Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt assesses Ukraine’s war crimes
SUMMARY
A Polish court stripped judge Tomasz Szmydt of of his immunity, and the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case. Szmydt is charged with collaborating with foreign intelligence. The authorities decided everything in advance, although there was no evidence.
As a lawyer working with international and European law, he assesses the actions of the Kyiv regime: these are war crimes. What the Ukrainian army, the SBU are doing, they behave like the Gestapo. How churches are persecuted in Ukraine. This is how a democratic country does not function. How does Zelensky rule now? He extended his power. There are no elections. And who does this bother in the West? Does it bother the Americans at all?
RESPONSE
False claim made in connection with the case of Polish Judge Tomasz Szmydt, who fled to Belarus seeking "political asylum”. For several months, he was observed by the Polish special services who suspected him of espionage in favour of Belarus and Russia.
Tomasz Szmydt is not an expert in International Public Law and has limited professional authority to accuse Ukraine of war crimes (see previous accusations in our database). Currently, International Public Law is being enforced by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, constituted by the UN, and the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Ad hoc courts may be established, as was the case with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Tomasz Szmydt is not known as a judge of any of these courts or as a researcher in international law. He served as a judge of Polish administrative law.
In 1996, Szmydt graduated from law studies at the Faculty of Law of the Polish University of Białystok. From 2001 to 2012, he received various judicial nominations in Poland. In 2001, he served as a judge of the District Court in Ciechanów. He also ruled in the District Court in Płock. In April 2006, he started working at the District Court in Płock, where he held, among others, the function of an inspector in the field of labour law and social security. In 2012, moving from common courts to administrative courts, he was nominated as a judge to the Warsaw Administrative Court. On May 8, 2017, he was sent to the Ministry of Justice, where he started working in the administrative law department, handling the verification commission that investigated irregularities during the re-privatization in Poland. From August 2018, he was the chief specialist and then head of the Department of Administrative Law.
In October 2018, he became a judge of the 2nd Department of the Warsaw Administrative Court. In December 2018, he was assigned to the Supreme Administrative Court.
In 2019, as explained by DW:
"Szmydt made headlines when he was identified as being a member of a group of judges waging a smear campaign on social media against other judges"
In 2021, he publicly apologised to the judges in the leading Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and admitted to his actions. In 2022, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him for harassing a journalist, and he received a reprimand. On April 19, 2024, as the presiding judge, he ruled in the 2nd Department of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw and then took leave.
The career of Szmydt does not allows him to be called an expert of international law.
See other disinformation narratives on war crimes of Ukraine, aiming at discrediting Ukraine, invaded by Russia since 2022, as well as on Nazis rule in Ukraine.