Tomasz L., former head of Warsaw’s Civil Status Records division, was arrested in 2022 for spying for Russia, copying birth, marriage and death records and sending them to Moscow.
Spy from Warsaw City Hall
Tomasz L. led the Archival Department of Civil Status Books at the Warsaw City Hall. Between 2017 and 2022, he copied and removed birth, marriage and death certificates, official templates, and diplomatic correspondence from the archives.
According to the Internal Security Agency, the data were transmitted to Russian intelligence, where they were used to create “non-legal” agents operating under false identities.
In March 2022 the agency arrested him; his detention was recently extended until 2026.
Russian Networks and Illegal Residents
The stolen records included parish books of Poles from former eastern territories and marriage certificates that had become “abandoned property” in post‑war Warsaw.
Russian services used this information to forge biographical data for individuals claiming Polish descent, enabling them to obtain Polish Card status and, ultimately, legal residency and citizenship.
The arrest of Tomasz L. triggered the expulsion of 45 Russian diplomats, including the victimized officer, from Poland.
Under the Shadow of WSI and Pegasus
In 2006 Tomasz L. served on the liquidation committee of the Military Information Services, granting him access to agent dossiers and military‑intelligence operations.
Journalists suggest that the Pegasus spyware could have facilitated his archival infiltration; prosecutors have not identified a definitive motive or ideological alignment.
Charges relate only to the period after 2017, not to his earlier committee work.
Secrets from the Past
Now 58, Tomasz L. hails from Konstantynów, where his father was a party activist during the PRL era. A gap in his public record appears in the 1990s, with a return to academia only after 2000, when he completed a history degree.
Details of his activities during the missing years remain unknown, and he has denied any wrongdoing.
