A Chinese former Huawei executive arrested in Poland for espionage has claimed he is innocent, according to a statement published by the Onet.pl news portal on Tuesday. 
The arrest was the latest setback for Huawei, which has also seen the arrest of the daughter of the firm’s founder in Canada and US efforts to blacklist the company internationally over security concerns.
‘Following my arrest on January 8, 2019 on charges of so-called espionage against Poland, I firmly declare that I am innocent,’ Weijing W said in the statement. 
‘The charges against me are without any basis and extremely unjust,’ added the man who was promptly fired by Huawei after the arrest. 
‘I’ve never been in contact with and certainly have never collaborated with any spy service, especially not a Chinese one.’
Weijing W detailed his life trajectory from a small village in northern China to the Chinese consulate in Poland’s Baltic port of Gdansk before winding up at Huawei Poland. 
The Chinese national claimed that the telecommunications firm was also innocent of any wrongdoing in the Polish case. 
‘To the best of my knowledge, Huawei is innocent and all the negative opinions about the firm in the context of my arrest are without basis,’ he said. 
Last week, Poland began an analysis of the company’s equipment, according to government cyber-security official Karol Okonski. 
He said the government is looking into whether there are any risks associated with the equipment as has been suggested in Poland and other member states of NATO and the EU. 
Poland had also arrested a Polish citizen on suspicion of espionage along with Weijing W. 
The man, Piotr D, is a former agent for Poland’s ABW counter-intelligence service and was an employee of the Polish branch of French mobile phone operator Orange at the time of his arrest earlier this month