Belarusian opposition politician and diplomat Pavel Latushka, who is based in Warsaw, is thought to be one of the targets, tvp.info reported.
The website said the probable attacks against Latushka and his National Anti-Crisis Management group (NAU) were being masterminded by a former member of the Belarusian regime, Vladimir Tikhinya.
Tikhinya is a former high-ranking official of the Belarusian interior ministry's organised crime unit, which was also used to suppress popular protests following President Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed election victory in 2020, tvp.info reported.
It cited a Belarusian dissident as saying that Tikhinya had also acted as a liaison with the criminal underworld, and was earlier this year tasked by the regime with organising an anti-opposition operation abroad.
The Polish website added that Tikhinya had joined forces with crime boss Alyaksandr Kushnerov, sending him to coordinate revenge operations against opposition activists based in the European Union.
However, after Belarusian dissidents had alerted Polish authorities, Kushnerov was denied an EU Schengen visa, tvp.info reported.
It said Tikhinya then turned to another criminal, Andriy Paspechau, whose network tried to put Latushka and his group under surveillance.
Belsat has spoken to a man who had been beaten with telescopic batons for refusing to spy on Latushka in Warsaw, according to tvp.info.
“These people were ordered to harass me until I provide information; specifically I was told to gather information on NAU,” the man said, according to tvp.info.
He was also quoted as saying that Belarusian security services were employing drug addicts, who were directed by the likes of Paspechau’s group to commit theft in Poland, so as to stir up anti-Belarusian sentiment among the Polish public.
Tvp.info also reported that an official in Minsk said in April that the Belarusian authorities would crack down on opposition figures abroad in an “anti-terrorist operation” modelled after that mounted by the United States to hunt down Osama bin Laden.
In May, Lukashenko’s regime forcibly diverted a Ryanair jet in order to arrest opposition journalist Roman Protasevich, tvp.info noted.
(pm/gs)
Source: tvp.info, euobserver.com