The detention of former National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) chairman Maciej Świrski was not the end of Tuesday’s operations carried out by Poland’s Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA). Officers also searched the home of TV Republika journalist Piotr Matczuk and the residence of Anna Plakwicz from the Chancellery of the President. TV Republika CEO Tomasz Sakiewicz has no doubts – in his view, the operation was “purely propagandistic” and intended to divert public attention from the problems currently facing the government.
On Tuesday morning, officers from the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), acting on the orders of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Rzeszów, detained Maciej Świrski, the former chairman of the National Broadcasting Council (KRRiT) and former member of the management board of the Polish National Foundation (PFN), as well as Cezary Jurkiewicz, a Warsaw city councillor and former president of the Polish National Foundation. Świrski issued a brief statement, which was read on air by his wife during a TV Republika broadcast.
That was not all. CBA officers also searched the homes of TV Republika journalist Piotr Matczuk and Anna Plakwicz, who is responsible for the Presidential Events Office within the Chancellery of the President.
Sakiewicz: A Propaganda Operation
Niezalezna spoke with TV Republika CEO Tomasz Sakiewicz about the case. In his assessment, “the CBA operation is purely propagandistic because the investigation has been ongoing for years. Nothing has been established.”
“It is highly unlikely that anything additional will be found in the homes of the people targeted by today’s searches,” he added.
According to Sakiewicz, “the goal was to divert attention from the massive scandal surrounding South Hospital, as well as problems emerging in other institutions and the complete incompetence of the current government.”
“Unfortunately, the more irregularities come to light, the greater the government’s failures and the deeper its embarrassment. As a result, there are more victims. We are witnessing brutal violations of human rights and the abuse of the justice system and state services,” he stressed.
He also pointed out that “at the same time, Dawid Kacprzyk is still walking free, has not been charged, and no CBA officers have searched his home. A man who was effectively caught in connection with serious irregularities and whose violation of procedures at his hospital’s emergency department may have contributed to patients’ deaths has not even been summoned for questioning.”