Tuesday, January 9, Mariusz Kaminski and Mackie Vesik They were arrested The police took her to the detention center in the Grohów district of Warsaw. The case has caused great controversy and questions about the legality of the actions of the prosecutor's office, the courts and the officers.
Law and Justice considers that the termination of the parliamentary mandates of Kaminski and Vesik and their preservation is illegal. The government coalition replies that the final judgment has been passed on the case of the politicians.
In his article, the former representative of the Minister-Coordinator of Secret Services, Stanislav Zharin, recalled what the land scandal and the subsequent accusations against Kaminsky and Vesik looked like.
Land scandal
The case dates back to 2006. It was then that the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau was created. The young service, which was mainly based on a new cadre of functionaries and officers who had no connection with the services of the Polish People's Republic, had a difficult task ahead. At that time, the problem of corruption was widespread in the country.
Already in December 2006, a CBA officer began to hear rumors about the activities of Andrzej K., then a member of the management board of Telefonia Dialog. K. should propose deagrarianization of all Polish land, of course after accepting a bribe of the appropriate amount. He spoke about his connections in Samobrona, which he co-founded in the government at the time and whose leader Andrzej Leper was the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development. It was this ministry that issued the decision on the possession of land parcels in the country.
After the first actions of CBA agents, it became clear that K. He actually offered to settle the land case in exchange for a bribe. His offer had to be exclusive because, he claimed, his connections could not be used indefinitely. During the first actions, the officers manage to establish that Piotr Ryba, a former journalist, professionally connected to Andrzej K. and politically connected to Samobrona is also involved in the proceedings.
provocation
After the initial activities, the Central Bank submits applications to the General Prosecutor's Office and the Court to start operational activities. Officers obtain such consent and then begin covert operations that last for many months. The bogus agent was interested in farming a plot of land in Masuria where a hotel was to be built. According to K., it will cost PLN 3 million, because the bribe money has to be divided among other people. K.'s subsequent testimony indicates that he was talking about Piotr Ryba and Andrzej Leper.
On July 6, 2007, the operation was supposed to end with a controlled bribe. Agents must enter, among others, the headquarters of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. However, it turned out to be a leak. K. They were caught red-handed, but Andrzej Leper allegedly found out about the whole operation and quickly left.
The problems probably started when the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, led by Janusz Kaczmarek, was informed about the CBA's actions. BOR officers under the Ministry of Home Affairs and Administration must have been aware of the CBA's actions against Leper, who, as Deputy Prime Minister, was protected by them. Otherwise, there could have been a shootout involving agents from both services.
On July 5, 2007, Janusz Kaczmarek met with the then Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, who informed him about the planned action of the CBA against K. And Andrzej against the Lepers. Then the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration went to the presidential palace, where he met with President Lech Kaczyński, among others. According to the conclusion of the testimony, the actions of the officers were not discussed during this conversation.
On the same day, after 11 o'clock at night, Kaczmarek met businessman Ryszard Krause at the Marriott Hotel in Warsaw. The media speculates that Leper learned about the planned provocation through Krause and Samoobrona MP Lech Voscherovich. Vice Prime Minister shared this information with Riba. Finally, K. And Riba was arrested by CBA officers, and Andrzej Leper was dismissed by then-Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski. This eventually led to the fall of the PiS-Samoobrona-LPR government and the calling of new elections.
Political revenge?
After winning in 2007, the Civil Platform was initially not interested in the land scandal. Waldemar Gontarski, a person associated with self-defense, said about the possibility of CBA committing crimes. The investigation was entrusted to the prosecutor Boguslaw Olewinski, an activist of the ZSMP government during the Polish People's Republic, who is registered as an agent of the communist security service under the pseudonym “Marian”. Due to his non-compliance with the reports, the Institute of National Remembrance did not decide to conduct lustration procedures against him for lying. Olewinski questioned CBA management, including Kaminski, as a witness. Initially, there was no indication that this would change.
In 2009, the head of the CBA presented to Prime Minister Donald Tusk materials related to the investigation of the gambling scandal by agents. Let us remind you that it was a deal between some prominent politicians of the civic platform and representatives of the gambling industry, who in exchange for bribes introduced decisions that are beneficial to businessmen and harmful to the budget in the gaming and betting bill. As a result of this practice, the state treasury lost PLN 21 billion. Then they lost positions, including: Zbigniew Khlebowski and Piotr Dzewiecki. On April 7, 2011, the termination of the investigation into the gambling scandal was issued and signed. The scandal was revealed by the then journalist of “Rzeczpospolita” Sezari Gmiz together with Grazina Zawadka.
According to the media, it was then that Donald Tusk decided to remove Mariusz Kaminski from the position of the head of the CBA. Then the events developed rapidly. A team of prosecutors Edward Zalewski, Boguslaw Olevinski, and Anna Habalo (who was later convicted of corruption scandal) decided to indict Kaminski in connection with the CBA operation since 2007. Based on this, Tusk dismissed Kaminsky from his position in the agency.
Despite the lack of new evidence and materials related to the land scandal, Ołewinski decided to take the next step and also indict the deputy head of the CBA, Maciej Wąsik, and two directors of the bureau. In the meantime, a Parliamentary Investigation Commission on Pressure is created and managed in the Seimas, whose work is led by politician Andrzej Chuma, with breaks. The commission's report states that Kaminsky, as the head of the CBA, “did not take any action that could be described as an abuse of power against subordinate officers.”
Meanwhile, Prosecutor Olewinski filed charges against Kaminski and Vesik at the Warsaw-Shrodmieski District Court. On June 20, 2012, the judge dismissed the case. However, the prosecutor's office is filing a complaint. This time the case will be heard by Judge Wojciech Laczewski, after an individual report. In March 2015, following his decision, Kaminski and Vesik were sentenced to 3 years in prison for abuse of power.
The verdict caused a great controversy. The decision indicated that the SSS did not have reliable information about corruption (despite its operational activities), incited to commit crimes (although K. was eventually caught in the case) and acted illegally (despite the police and court giving consent to start operational activities). ).
In 2015, before the final verdict, President Andrzej Duda pardoned Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Vesic.
The peculiar case of a judge
Judge Wojciech Zachevsky became famous for journalistic provocation. In 2016, it was revealed that the judge had started meeting with journalist Tomas Lee via Twitter (his account was fake – ed.) and planned a strategy with him to attack the United Right government. Łączewski reported to the prosecutor's office that his account had been hacked and the message was not his. However, according to the investigators, the judge is not telling the truth.
The conclusions of the investigation conducted by the Krakow Regional Prosecutor's Office show that, contrary to the conclusion of the crime presented by the judge Wojciech Laczewski, the accounts written by him under fictitious names on the Internet portal Twitter were not hacked. The collected evidence also indicates that the judge falsely testified that it was not he, but the alleged thief, who encouraged online correspondence with a person he mistook for the then-editor-in-chief of the weekly Newsweek, Tomas Lee. conduct an anti-government campaign.
Reassurance
On December 20, 2023, the last act of the whole affair took place. After the June ruling of the Supreme Court in Warsaw District Court, which Canceled the termination of Mariusz Kaminski's case And other former CBA executives have passed judgment. The case was decided by three judges: Anna Bator-Ciesielska, Grzegorz Miśkiewicz and Mariusz Ivashko.
The court sentenced former head of CBA, coordinator of secret services and head of internal affairs and administration Mariusz Kaminski and his former deputy Maciej Vasik to two years of absolute imprisonment for their actions in the land scandal.
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“Detention is legal on all sides.” A sudden voice from the presidential palaceAlso read:
Unofficially: surprise police action. Kaminski and Vesik were released from custody