Authorities of Belarus declared a Polish soldier who deserted last December was found dead in Minsk. Authorities don’t exclude a criminal act.
The Belarusian Investigative Committee reported on March 17 that Emil Czeczko, a defector from the Polish Army, was found hanged in his apartment in Minsk.
The reasons for his death are unknown. Belarus law enforcement said on its Telegram channel it was considering all possibilities and didn’t rule out the “violent nature of the death”.
Emil Czeczko made headlines in Poland as the Polish soldier who decided to defect from the army and fled to Belarus last December. During summer and until the end of the year, thousands of migrants were trying to cross the borders of Poland, Lithuania and Latvia from Belarus, increasing tensions with the European Union.
Czeczko repeated on Belarusian news media, organizations tightly controlled by the state, that Polish soldiers were shooting at migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border. Polish General Piotrowski said it was “complete nonsense” and that he was used as a “propaganda tool against” Poland.
