“If this concerned any other well-known politician, with such a scale of corruption, we would have had to react the same way. And we did react the same way. However, I must admit, I’ve never encountered anything on this scale…” said EIC Tomasz Sakiewicz before the courtroom. Today, the verdict in the trial of the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Polska and Tomasz Grodzki was supposed to be announced. However, the politician did not appear in court, and the hearing will now proceed as a regular session.
The District Court for Warsaw-Wola was expected to rule in the case of Tomasz Grodzki versus Tomasz Sakiewicz. However, the judge asked journalists and the audience to leave the room, informing them that no verdict would be issued today due to the appearance of new evidence in the case.
It was stated that the verdict would probably be delivered within a week, though this is not certain. The trial may therefore be prolonged.
Sakiewicz: “I’ve never seen anything on this scale“
Before entering the courtroom, editor Tomasz Sakiewicz said:
“I don’t know what to expect, but I know what I hope for. If the essence of this case is for me to prove that Mr. Grodzki took bribes, then I believe I have presented sufficient evidence for that. But if the goal is merely to intimidate journalists, then there’s nothing that can be done. The matter is clear. The only question is whether the court will stand not on my side, but on the side of the hundreds of wronged people. Across Poland, people were exposed to extortion by dishonest doctors. Or perhaps the court will stand on the side of the system created by Tusk, in which journalists are not allowed to criticize politicians, as long as those politicians are aligned with them.”
Moreover, the editor-in-chief of Gazeta Polska pointed out that “if this concerned any other well-known politician, with such a scale of corruption, we would have had to react the same way. And we did react the same way.”
“However, I must admit, I’ve never encountered anything on this scale… I’ve heard about bribery, like everyone in the healthcare system, but not on this scale, not such systematic extortion of money from people – often those in tragic circumstances, trying to pay, often for false hope, truly not,” he added.
In conclusion, he stated, “we must stand on the side of those who were truly wronged. And whether I end up imprisoned or not, that’s a much smaller harm than that suffered by those who lost loved ones because they couldn’t pay.”