According to public broadcaster TVP Info, prosecutors were planning to charge Stanisław Gawłowski, an MP for the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party, with corruption on three counts, in addition to two other charges of revealing a state secret and plagiarism.
Gawłowski is a suspect in an ongoing investigation into a “land improvement scandal” in Poland’s West Pomerania region, a case that law enforcers began probing several years ago, according to Poland’s PAP news agency.
The agency quoted prosecutors as saying that Gawłowski is suspected of accepting a bribe of at least PLN 200,000 (EUR 47,600, USD 56,540) at a time when he was deputy environment minister in Poland’s previous coalition government led by the PO and co-formed by the rural-based Polish People’s Party (PSL).
The investigation into the land improvement scandal has been going on since June 2013. It involves suspected irregularities in how the West Pomeranian Land Improvement and Water Management Authority in the north-western city of Szczecin carried out more than 100 investment projects worth several hundred million zlotys, according to reports.
A total of 56 individuals have been charged as part of the investigation so far, according to Polish Radio’s IAR news agency.
Prosecutors want Gawłowski to be stripped of his parliamentary immunity, IAR reported.
Ruling party senator suspected of influence peddling
Meanwhile, earlier this week the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau detained five individuals suspected of corruption in connection with an alleged influence-peddling case in the southern city of Kraków.
Stanisław Kogut, a senator for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, was among those who were expected to face charges, according to reports.
Kogut, who has since been suspended as a PiS member, on Wednesday said he was not guilty and announced that he had waived his parliamentary immunity so that he could face trial and clear his name. Kogut’s son Grzegorz was reportedly also among the suspects.
Prosecutors were aiming to press three charges of corruption against Stanisław Kogut, according to private radio broadcaster RMF FM’s rmf24.pl website. It quoted investigators as saying that the senator is suspected of “accepting a promise of substantial financial gain to the tune of PLN 1 million" in exchange for using his influence in a real estate project in Kraków.
Prosecutors suspect half the money was accepted in the form of a donation paid to a foundation for assisting disabled people of which the senator was chairman of the board, the rmf24.pl website reported.
But it added RMF FM’s investigative reporters had established that “not a penny” of the alleged bribe that prosecutors believe Senator Kogut has accepted “directly made it into his pocket.”
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR/PAP, TVP Info, rmf24.pl