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Polish political scandal puts fresh pressure on country's state bureaucracy

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c6a27__75680130_75677406By Martin Banks

Poland’s state bureaucracy will next month come under fresh pressure in Brussels as the row deepens over Polish police and security agents raiding the editorial offices of the Polish weekly paper Wprost.

The raid, branded one of the worst example of abuse of state power against the media in recent European history, is the subject of a big political row in Poland.

Government officials, described as “high-handed”, were accused of using police agents to try and stifle journalists in Poland from publishing material embarrassing to the Polish authorities.

The case has provoked widespread international condemnation of the alleged abuse of power which Poland’s state judicial and police agencies stand accused of.

It has parallels to the scandals of “preventive detention” which Polish tax police and prosecutors have been accused of using to damage businesses in Poland who do not support local networks of officials, politicians and judicial figures - the so-called Uklad networks.

At a special event in Brussels on July 9, details will be given of the use of preventive detentions to arrest and imprison people without charge. This has already been condemned by Transparency International and the Council of Europe.

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At the same time, newly elected MEPs, including Polish members, meeting for the first time since the European elections will be asked to examine the problem and make recommendations to the European Commission for advice and if necessary action against Warsaw.

One Polish MEP said: “The eventual aim is to ensure that Polish businesses can operate normally without fear of politically motivated raids and arrests that stifle entrepreneurship in Poland."

The Brussels conference will be attended by MEPs, Commission representatives as well as other interested parties, including former UK Europe Minister Denis MacShane.

One example of preventive detention is the case of Marek Kmetko, a Polish-born businessman who was the subject of a probe by the Polish tax police.

They accused his wife of money laundering, a move he branded as a “political attack”.

In September 2010, the Wroclaw Prosecutor’s Office asked the German police to investigate the Kmetko's and their schoolgirl daughter for alleged money laundering.

The German police ordered searches of all the Kmetko accounts and paper held at his head office in Berlin but found nothing and the case was discontinued. The Wroclaw State Prosecutor also dropped the case.

Despite this, Kmetko's businesses were raided and one of the women they arrested late in 2013 was Dagmara Natkaniec who works for Kmetko but has no executive responsibility or knowledge of his operations in Poland.

She was willing to post bail and report to the relevant police authorities but the Wroclaw Prosecutor refused. She is still held in custody.

Meanwhile, Poland's justice minister has said the recent controversial raid to find leaked tapes that embarrassed the government "should have never taken place".

Marek Biernacki said the raid on the offices of Wprost had raised "legitimate concerns".

His comments after Wprost published an alleged private conversation in which Poland's top banker discusses the next election with a minister.

Under Polish law, the central bank must remain independent of politics.

Transcripts of the recordings, made at a restaurant in Warsaw popular with politicians, were published and, in the recording, Interior Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz is allegedly heard talking to Marek Belka, head of the National Bank of Poland.

Belka has apparently been heard calling for Finance Minister Jacek Rostowski to be removed in return for the bank's support in the event of an economic crisis. Rostowski was replaced four months later - but Prime Minister Donald Tusk denies this was as a result of the taped discussion.

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