“I think this reveals the entire intention behind Tusk’s operation. The operation of this criminal gang that rules Poland today. A gang that, on one hand, is taking revenge for the fight against real criminals, the corrupt ones, who have swarmed around Tusk and did so back then as well,” said Zbigniew Ziobro, former Minister of Justice, on the air of TV Republika, as the prosecution under Waldemar Żurek takes further repressive actions against him.
On Tuesday, the spokesperson for the Prosecutor General’s Office (PG) announced that Waldemar Żurek, current head of the Ministry of Justice (MS) and Prosecutor General, had submitted to the Speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia, a motion requesting consent to hold Ziobro criminally liable, as well as to detain and arrest him.
The case concerns alleged irregularities in the spending of funds from the Justice Fund. According to the PG spokesperson, Ziobro, while serving as Minister of Justice, founded and led an organized criminal group that embezzled over 150 million PLN from this fund.
Moreover, during a press conference, TV Republika reporter Michał Gwardyński asked prosecutor Adamiak what would happen to the items purchased with money from the Justice Fund. These included equipment such as dishes for rural women’s associations or… fire trucks for Volunteer Fire Departments (Ochotnicza Straż Pożarna, OSP).
No clear answer was given. The problem is, there was also no denial.
“Poland is ruled by a gang today”
The issue was commented on TV Republika today by the main person involved – Zbigniew Ziobro.
“I’ve learned that I committed 26 crimes. And they treated me so modestly – why not 260? If they wanted to be generous, they shouldn’t have held back. But seriously, one of the charges, which this prosecutor presented with all seriousness on her face, says that I stole 14 million PLN from the Justice Fund in order to use it for renovating a prosecutor’s office. I think even ‘Silni Razem’, who burn with hatred toward me, can see the absurdity of such an argument,” he said in an interview with Michał Rachoń.
As he assessed, “this is probably the only case in the world where a minister is accused that funds allocated within his ministry for the renovation of a building under his authority mean that the minister personally appropriated and stole that money.”
“This is about creating fake charges to give the impression to uninformed people that perhaps I really do have those 150 million somewhere in my accounts. Including those 14 million for the renovation of the prosecutor’s office, or maybe even the funds allocated for fire departments, for the purchase of CT scanners, equipment for Polish hospitals. These are the funds that serve people in various parts of Poland today. I didn’t see a penny of it, because everything went through official documents,” he continued.
According to him, “the goal is to create such an impression.”
“I think this reveals the entire intention behind Tusk’s operation. The operation of this criminal gang that rules Poland today. A gang that, on one hand, is taking revenge for the fight against real criminals, the corrupt ones, who have swarmed around Tusk and did so back then as well. Let me remind you of Mr. Nowak, Grodzki, Giertych. These are his closest associates… All these people, when I was Prosecutor General, had problems, investigations were underway, and charges had been filed,” said Ziobro.
Editor Rachoń followed up with a question about the items purchased with Justice Fund money and distributed, for example, to OSP units or rural women’s associations.
“This is a completely absurd situation. According to the logic of the legal regulations – if the prosecution followed them – they should confiscate and seize all those tools, devices, and vehicles for the purposes of the proceedings, and later take them over. This shows the absurdity of the entire situation. When we are dealing with real suspicions of theft – and recently, the media revealed that yachts and luxury cars were going to private owners linked to the Civic Platform – that’s a different story. Here, the money went to public entities. They’re not investigating that, but here they’re trying to paint as thieves people who allocated funds for important public purposes that serve Polish citizens,” he replied.