WARSAW, Poland (AP) —

A controversial judge who fled from Poland to neighboring autocratic Belarus has been put on a wanted list, a step toward an international arrest warrant on espionage allegations, the Polish national prosecutors’ office said Thursday.

Spokesperson Przemyslaw Nowak said the search for judge Tomasz Szmydt had been launched. Even if Belarus does not heed the international warrant, it will restrict Szmydt’s ability to travel internationally, authorities have said.

Poland’s services are working to determine how harmful Szmydt’s knowledge of any classified information might be to the interests of this NATO and European Union country. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk has called him a traitor.

Szmydt was notorious in Poland for having engaged in a 2019 online smear campaign against other judges that was sponsored by the Justice Ministry under the previous right-wing government.