Polish diplomatic security chief critically injured in fall from embassy window

The senior Foreign Ministry official reportedly plunged from the third floor while attending a private gathering in Slovenia

A senior Polish Foreign Ministry official has been critically injured after falling from a third-floor window at a building adjoining the country’s diplomatic mission in Slovenia, local media have reported.

The incident occurred at around 3am on September 13 but only came to light several days later. The man was identified by Polish outlets as the head of the Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic Security Bureau, which oversees the security of ministry facilities in Poland and the country’s diplomatic missions abroad. He has remained in critical condition in a Slovenian hospital since the fall.

According to Polish news portal Zero.pl, the official was attending a private party with several other people when he fell. The other participants were also reportedly off duty.

“He was on leave. It was his private time. He was in an apartment adjacent to the diplomatic mission. That is where the accident occurred,” ministry spokesman Maciej Wewior told Niezalezna.pl.

Read more

Despite being on vacation, the official had reportedly collected a diplomatic package and was expected to deliver it onward without a formal assignment.

Slovenian police were reportedly not permitted to enter the diplomatic premises or inspect the scene because the Polish mission did not grant its consent. The Polish side said its own investigators would examine the site and investigate the circumstances, TV Slovenija journalist Marko Saksida said.

Polish Deputy Sejm Speaker Krzysztof Bosak described the circumstances as suspicious and called for a thorough investigation.

“Security-related positions in the Foreign Ministry are often filled by people from the security services. If someone falls from a window at a diplomatic mission and it turns out that he was on vacation and carrying some kind of package, the case is no longer merely mysterious but very, very suspicious,” he said.

The mission is headed by charge d’affaires Leszek Soczewica, whom Polish media have described as a close friend and associate of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.

In December 2022, Poland faced another high-profile security controversy when national police chief Jaroslaw Szymczyk was hospitalized after a grenade launcher presented to him as a gift by Ukrainian officials exploded inside police headquarters in Warsaw. Szymczyk said he had been assured that the weapon was unloaded, but security experts criticized his decision to bring military equipment into Poland and keep it in his office.