Outdated travel ban stops former Polish counterintelligence chief Piotr Pytel at airport

Border check in Pyrzowice

Polish Border Guard officers at Katowice Airport in Pyrzowice prevented Gen. Piotr Pytel, the former head of the Military Counterintelligence Service (SKW), from boarding a flight to Turkey on Saturday morning. Pytel arrived at the airport with his wife for a planned holiday before border control flagged an active ban on leaving the country. Officers escorted Pytel to a secondary control area to check all accessible registry databases, confirming that the travel restriction remained technically active in government records. Silesian Border Guard spokesman Lt. Szymon Mościcki stated that Pytel was never detained, noting that after the verification concluded, the former general returned to the public departures hall.

Mościcki explained the legal obligations that guided the border officers during the airport check.

We as the Border Guard, Border Guard officers, respect the law, we do not make the law.

Origin of the 2017 travel restriction

The travel restriction originated from the Military Affairs Department of the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office during a long-running inquiry. In 2016, prosecutors brought charges against Pytel, former SKW chief Gen. Janusz Nosek, and Col. Krzysztof Dusza, alleging they exceeded their authority by cooperating with Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) without the statutory consent of the prime minister. In December 2017, prosecutor Jan Zarosa ordered Pytel's detention and imposed preventive measures, including a ban on leaving the country. Donald Tusk was also summoned for questioning as a witness during the broader inquiry.

Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office spokesman Piotr Antoni Skiba stated that the airport incident resulted from an administrative failure by the judicial system. On 22 February 2018, a Warsaw district court accepted a complaint by Pytel's defense counsel and formally revoked the preventive measures. However, the court did not transmit notice of the decision to border agencies, leaving the restriction active in Border Guard databases for over eight years.

Case dismissal and prosecution inquiry

The underlying criminal proceedings against the former counterintelligence officials were concluded in 2024. On 22 April 2024, prosecutor Col. Janusz Ochocki of the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office officially dismissed the case against Pytel, Nosek, and Dusza due to a lack of evidence justifying suspicion and the absence of statutory elements of an offense. The court had previously determined that Pytel's December 2017 detention was baseless, awarding him financial damages.

Following the dismissal, Pytel and Nosek received injured-party status in an ongoing investigation by the Internal Affairs Department of the National Prosecutor's Office regarding the previous conduct of prosecutors. Speaking after the incident, Pytel acknowledged that border staff acted according to the records displayed in front of them, while Civic Coalition parliamentary club deputy leader Roman Giertych expressed anger over the failure to clear the outdated restriction.

They did what they had to do.