“In my view, Andrzej Lepper was murdered by people from his own circles because he wanted to tell the truth,” stated PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. The case of the alleged suicide of the Self-Defence leader has raised serious doubts for years.
During Saturday’s meeting with residents of Kwidzyn, the PiS leader was asked about his stance toward Sławomir Mentzen. Kaczyński recalled how the Confederation leader insinuated that he had contributed to the death of the Self-Defence leader Andrzej Lepper, as well as to the health problems of Zbigniew Ziobro.
“If someone says that I caused Lepper’s death, or even that Zbigniew Ziobro is suffering today from a very serious cancer and therefore cannot come here—because, well, not long ago [Jan] Rokita was saying that when it comes to Tusk, he wants to kill him, because that’s what his character is like…” the PiS chairman said.
He continued: “Then [Mentzen] started saying that on top of that, I’m a gangster. I didn’t react to it because it was comical. How could I possibly have killed Ziobro or Lepper…?”
“In my view, Lepper was murdered—but he was murdered by people from his own environment. Because he wanted to reveal the truth about what happened at the end of our time in government—to, well, switch to the other side,” Kaczyński declared.
He added that the then-Prosecutor General, Andrzej Seremet, had “assured” him that Lepper was not murdered. “I remember we discussed the Smolensk case as well back then, but on this point he said: ‘We’ve completed the investigation—[Lepper] certainly was not murdered.’”
Kaczyński stated that he had come to “know Lepper well.” “I can say that if he was inclined to commit suicide, then I’m a high jumper—an Olympic champion,” he remarked.
The Self-Defence leader and former deputy prime minister in the PiS–LPR–Self-Defence coalition, Andrzej Lepper, was found dead at the party’s Warsaw headquarters. It was Lepper’s son-in-law who discovered him—hanging from a rope attached to a punching bag. According to the initial hypothesis, financial troubles may have led to suicide, prosecutors said at the time. In October 2012, the prosecution discontinued the investigation into Lepper’s death, having found no evidence that anyone had encouraged or helped the Self-Defence leader to take his own life. However, many people who knew Lepper personally have never believed this explanation.
In late September or early October 2010, at Andrzej Lepper’s request, he met with Gazeta Polska editor-in-chief Tomasz Sakiewicz. The meeting took place in Łazienki Park, near the Hunting Palace. According to Sakiewicz’s account, Lepper feared for his life and wanted to reveal who had leaked information about the planned CBA operation at the Ministry of Agriculture. He reportedly also expressed a desire to meet with Jarosław Kaczyński, and Sakiewicz was supposed to act as an intermediary.
During the conversation—parts of which were later published in GP—Lepper allegedly pointed to a person whose surname begins with the letter “K” as the source of the leak. He also claimed to possess evidence backing his words. The entire discussion was recorded by Tomasz Sakiewicz, who, after Andrzej Lepper’s mysterious death in August 2011, handed the recording over to the prosecution.