“There was the name of a very well-known politician there, who during this operation was engaged in total disinformation, defamation of people trying to explain something, and humiliating me and my assistant – an exceptional brute of a politician. In a very primitive way, this politician was indicated in the email as inspiring this attack. Why was this done? To build him a false alibi. This email was meant to create an alibi and call off the operation,” said the CEO of TV Republika, Tomasz Sakiewicz, about an email containing a false bomb threat that reached TV Republika.
For several days, TV Republika journalists have been subjected to harassment in connection with false reports. The culmination of these actions was Friday’s police entry into the apartment-office of the CEO of TV Republika, Tomasz Sakiewicz. The officers carrying out the intervention regarding a supposed child in danger had no identification badges, refused to identify themselves, and handcuffed the CEO’s assistant.
“It seems there was a plan to bring me to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office. They wanted to arrest me on Friday by provoking a fight, but it focused on my assistant. It ended with her being handcuffed and mildly mistreated, because what was done was indeed abuse – because ordering a person handcuffed behind their back to take out their personal belongings requires being a complete psychopath,” Tomasz Sakiewicz said today on TV Republika.
The CEO of TV Republika has been summoned by the prosecutor’s office as a witness in a case concerning, among others, the former Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro. Representatives of the prosecutor’s office – including Dariusz Korneluk, who oversees the work of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek – suggest that charges may be brought against Tomasz Sakiewicz in connection with Ziobro’s trip to the United States.
“This operation in my apartment was supposed to look different – they were supposed to burst in, provoke a fight, they were very aggressive and very rude, and lead to my arrest on Friday and being taken for questioning,” the CEO of TV Republika assessed.
Tomasz Sakiewicz indicated that the current authorities are “obscuring” the entire case and that diversionary actions are being carried out.
“In such situations, a single coordinating body is usually appointed first to handle the same type of reports in order to assess their credibility and adjust the response; meanwhile, despite our requests for coordination, it was deliberately dispersed and we were not informed that there were a lot of fake reports,” he said. “The Government Security Centre (RCB) instead of informing the services and those concerned, informs officials in Nowy Sącz. This is a deliberate decision to facilitate chaos and disinformation,” he added.
On Saturday, another false bomb threat reached TV Republika. However, as Tomasz Sakiewicz noted, the station learned about it not from the services that received the false report, but from an email sent directly to the editorial office.
“This email contained certain Russicisms. I was not at all surprised when the authorities announced that it was the Russians, because Russicisms were deliberately inserted into this one email sent to us. The name of a very well-known politician was included, who during this operation was engaged in total disinformation, defamation of people trying to explain something, humiliating me and my assistant – an exceptional brute of a politician. In a very primitive way, this politician was indicated in the email as inspiring this attack. Why was this done? To build him a false alibi. This email was meant to create an alibi and call off the operation. In my opinion, the real perpetrators are in Poland, they are connected to the current political camp and are using the police and services to destroy independent media,” said the CEO of TV Republika.