False emergency alerts first targeted TV Republika and its journalists, then former head of the National Security Bureau (BBN) Sławomir Cenckiewicz, and eventually the situation affected President Karol Nawrocki himself. Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek said yesterday that a special task force had allegedly been working on the case. TV Republika CEO Tomasz Sakiewicz published a statement in which he posed a number of questions to the authorities.
On Saturday evening, following a false emergency alert, emergency services forcibly entered President Karol Nawrocki’s family apartment in Gdańsk. Earlier, similar incidents had taken place at the homes of TV Republika journalists and former BBN chief Sławomir Cenckiewicz.
Polish Police Commander-in-Chief Gen. Marek Boroń announced yesterday that a special team had begun operating last week in response to earlier reports concerning false bomb threats and fabricated warnings about threats to health and life submitted to Emergency Notification Centres. Deputy Interior Minister Czesław Mroczek clarified that the team had been established “within the first hours” after the false alerts targeting the headquarters of TV Republika. He added that the group includes officers from the Warsaw Metropolitan Police Headquarters, the Central Bureau of Investigation of the Police (CBŚP), and the Central Cybercrime Bureau. He also stressed that the team cooperates with other state services, particularly in the field of combating cybercrime.
These remarks were addressed by TV Republika CEO Tomasz Sakiewicz, who was personally affected by the false alerts,including one incident that ended with police entering his apartment and handcuffing his assistant.
“From today’s statements by the authorities, we have learned that there is some entity coordinating actions regarding the terrorist alerts directed against TV Republika, the President, and opposition politicians. The police were also supposedly given new instructions on how to respond. In this connection, I have several questions,”
Tomasz Sakiewicz stated.
The CEO of TV Republika published a lengthy list of questions which, in his view, should be answered by the government:
- Since when has this entity been operating, and why were the intervening police officers unaware of its existence?
- How can it be contacted, and why does it not communicate with the victims of these attacks?
- What previous instructions had been issued to the police? Contrary to Interior Minister Kierwiński’s statements, instructions evidently were being given. Why were they changed only now?
- Why did the leadership of the Interior Ministry encourage police to enter the homes of journalists and politicians after every alert, even those deemed not credible?
- Why, contrary to assurances from the Interior Ministry, are neither the victims of the attacks nor the public, despite the consent of those involved, allowed to view the body-camera footage from police officers intervening at the home of TV Republika’s CEO? Is it true that one of these recordings has gone missing?
- What instructions were issued to the police and security services regarding possible alerts between May 17 and May 19? Who participated in meetings on this matter?