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Poland continues to investigate Pablo González for espionage
  • The spokesman for the Polish National Prosecutor's Office has stated that although the Basque journalist has not been formally charged, "by law she can be accused of rebellion". Gonzalez's decision to exchange prisoners came from Washington, but Poland's special services continued to press for the journalist to accept "his alleged fault", according to Russia Today, who has criticized the situation.
Julen Ugartemendia Carcedo 2024ko abuztuaren 14a
Pablo Gonzalez euskal kazetaria 2022ko otsailaren 28an atxilotu zuten Ukrainako mugatik gertu, eta abuztuaren 1ean utzi zuten libre. Argazkia: EFE

The espionage investigation against the Basque journalist Pablo González remains open, according to EFE. The journalist has spent two and a half years in pre-trial detention in Poland, where she has remained inhumane and has been arrested seven times in pre-trial detention. Gonzalez, in his first interview following his release from prison on TV Russia Today (RT), assured that false information, such as conviction, had been published and denounced as being "tortured, threatened and pressured" in prison. "I was accused of a single suspicion and I had no trial," the Basque journalist said in an interview with Russian television, which was picked up over the Internet.

The spokesman for the Polish National Prosecutor’s Office, Przemyslaw Nowak, told the media that the trial against González is proceeding and, although he has not yet been formally charged, he said that the trial in absentia – the trials that take place without the presence of the defendant – can be a trial. “The investigation against González is not closed by actions against Poland,” Nowak said. The Polish spokesman said that González "may be accused of rebellion according to the law". The Polish prosecutor’s office in Lublín, who last exposed González’s pre-trial detention in May, has not yet made any accusations against González.

Washington wanted to enter in exchange for prisoners, but Poland did not.

On 1 August, Russia and Belarus, on the one hand, and the United States, Germany, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, on the other hand, exchanged a total of 26 prisoners, the largest exchange of prisoners since the Cold War. When it was reported that Gonzalez had entered this exchange of prisoners, the RT reported that the Polish special services continued to press for the Basque journalist to recognize his "alleged guilt", but the decision to recruit the journalist came from Washington.

The Polish Government required passports to González – who has two passports, because he was born in Russia and when he was a child he moved to Euskal Herria – and now the Spanish Government would have to send another to his home to return home, but he has a legal process in the EU that could delay the issue, according to EITB.

They suggested that “he would commit suicide”

In an interview at RT, González denounced the situation currently in Polish prison. The journalist has said that he has lost 20 kilos of jail, that they had bad food and that they did not have medical care, as he explained. The journalist has denounced that in jail he spoke to a psychologist, who suggested that he "commit suicide", as he reported in a statement. When he was one and a half years in prison, fourteen MEPs handed over a letter to Zbigniew Zobro, Minister of Justice of Poland, denouncing the situation of the Basque journalist: "During the 18 months he's spent in prison, he's been in incommunicado detention, 23 hours a day in a sunless cell."