On Monday, Tomasz Sakiewicz, head of Telewizja Republika, announced that he had been summoned by prosecutors in connection with Zbigniew Ziobro. One day earlier, the station revealed that the former justice minister would become one of its commentators.
The head of Poland’s National Prosecutor’s Office, Dariusz Korneluk, claims the summons is intended to clarify the circumstances surrounding the start of that cooperation.
On Sunday, Telewizja Republika announced that Ziobro, currently staying in the United States, would become a new commentator for the station. The politician had traveled there from Hungary, where he had been granted political asylum. One day after the announcement, Republika president Tomasz Sakiewicz was summoned by prosecutors in a case concerning the former justice minister.
Speaking on TVN24 on Monday evening, Korneluk — who heads the National Prosecutor’s Office after the forceful takeover of the institution — commented on the summons.
“We are taking into account information coming from Mr. Ziobro himself, but also information published by Telewizja Republika that Mr. Ziobro was hired by the television station from one day to the next,” he said.
He added that, as a result, “prosecutors decided to summon editor Sakiewicz for questioning as a witness in order, among other things, to clarify what happened that suddenly Zbigniew Ziobro, overnight — just after the change of government in Hungary — became a correspondent or employee of Telewizja Republika, and whether this could possibly be connected to the commission of an offense under Article 239 of the Criminal Code, namely aiding an offender, including the creation of false evidence for a wanted person.”
Earlier, Sakiewicz himself addressed the summons on Republika’s air.
“I was unaware that employing someone as a commentator at Telewizja Republika could be considered a crime. This is a new reality not seen since communist times. Even convicted individuals have at times appeared as commentators in various media outlets. But the mere fact that hiring someone as a commentator is being treated as a possible crime is something extraordinary. It does not fit within any legal codes or accepted standards,” Sakiewicz stated.