Leak Scandal Topples Polish Police Chiefs
In a 29 October vote that followed party lines, the Sejm turned back the right-wing opposition's attempt to force Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik from office.
Janik survived the confidence vote by a margin of 216 votes to 204. He is the highest-ranking Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) politician so far to be embroiled in a scandal involving tipoffs to two SLD members accused of links to criminal gangs in the town of Starachowice.
Although the minister survived the vote, his former deputy Zbigniew Sobotka had already resigned over the affair, and it has also played a part in major shakeup of the national police force. National police chief Antoni Kowalczyk resigned (also on 29 October), after two of his top deputies had stepped down.
The opposition charged that Janik bore overall responsibility for the Starachowice scandal, in which his former deputy Sobotka was embroiled. Sobotka has been charged with leaking secret information about a planned police raid on organized crime in Starachowice last spring to SLD deputy Andrzej Jagiello, who in turn tipped off the two SLD members in Starachowice. They were later arrested; Jagiello was stripped of parliamentary immunity by his Sejm colleagues.
Before Sobotka's resignation and indictment on charges of disclosing secret information, Janik repeatedly assured the prime minister and the public of his confidence in his deputy.
Janik's party colleague, Prime Minister Leszek Miller, dismissed the confidence vote as a waste of energy during debate before voting.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski also defended the minister in several interviews.
Janik is seen both within the SLD and by the public as largely successful in launching anti-corruption programs and raising public confidence in the police. Until the Starachowice scandal, his ministry labored under a reputation for sluggishness, but had escaped major scandals.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The same day Janik faced the Sejm, the Starachowice affair took another high-profile victim, national police chief Kowalczyk. His resignation came after Justice Minister Grzegorz Kurczuk told deputies Kowalczyk had admitted to prosecutors that he passed information about a planned police raid in Starachowice to Sobotka, after initially denying it.
Kowalczyk's replacement was named immediately following the official announcement of the police chief's resignation: General Leszek Szreder, police chief of the Pomerania region.
Szreder's nomination was not unexpected, but his first act on taking office was--the dismissal of two high-ranking police officers, Wladyslaw Padlo and Adam Rapacki. Rapacki, head of the organized-crime fighting Central Investigation Bureau, was questioned by prosecutors the following day over the Starachowice affair.
The personnel changeover was a planned maneuver designed to impose the government's control over the police, wrote former Interior Minister Marek Biernacki in the daily Rzeczpospolita.
“The police were given a clear sign that above all they must obey political power,” wrote Biernacki, who along with Rapacki helped start the Central Investigation Bureau. He said the shakeup was the government's “revenge for the Starachowice affair, revenge against the police. Rapacki is a symbol of the fight against organized crime.”
The Central Investigation Bureau led the operation that resulted in the arrest of the SLD politicians in Starachowice.
The new police commander dismissed talk of a political subtext behind the firings. Link
In a 29 October vote that followed party lines, the Sejm turned back the right-wing opposition's attempt to force Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik from office.
Janik survived the confidence vote by a margin of 216 votes to 204. He is the highest-ranking Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) politician so far to be embroiled in a scandal involving tipoffs to two SLD members accused of links to criminal gangs in the town of Starachowice.
Although the minister survived the vote, his former deputy Zbigniew Sobotka had already resigned over the affair, and it has also played a part in major shakeup of the national police force. National police chief Antoni Kowalczyk resigned (also on 29 October), after two of his top deputies had stepped down.
The opposition charged that Janik bore overall responsibility for the Starachowice scandal, in which his former deputy Sobotka was embroiled. Sobotka has been charged with leaking secret information about a planned police raid on organized crime in Starachowice last spring to SLD deputy Andrzej Jagiello, who in turn tipped off the two SLD members in Starachowice. They were later arrested; Jagiello was stripped of parliamentary immunity by his Sejm colleagues.
Before Sobotka's resignation and indictment on charges of disclosing secret information, Janik repeatedly assured the prime minister and the public of his confidence in his deputy.
Janik's party colleague, Prime Minister Leszek Miller, dismissed the confidence vote as a waste of energy during debate before voting.
President Aleksander Kwasniewski also defended the minister in several interviews.
Janik is seen both within the SLD and by the public as largely successful in launching anti-corruption programs and raising public confidence in the police. Until the Starachowice scandal, his ministry labored under a reputation for sluggishness, but had escaped major scandals.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
The same day Janik faced the Sejm, the Starachowice affair took another high-profile victim, national police chief Kowalczyk. His resignation came after Justice Minister Grzegorz Kurczuk told deputies Kowalczyk had admitted to prosecutors that he passed information about a planned police raid in Starachowice to Sobotka, after initially denying it.
Kowalczyk's replacement was named immediately following the official announcement of the police chief's resignation: General Leszek Szreder, police chief of the Pomerania region.
Szreder's nomination was not unexpected, but his first act on taking office was--the dismissal of two high-ranking police officers, Wladyslaw Padlo and Adam Rapacki. Rapacki, head of the organized-crime fighting Central Investigation Bureau, was questioned by prosecutors the following day over the Starachowice affair.
The personnel changeover was a planned maneuver designed to impose the government's control over the police, wrote former Interior Minister Marek Biernacki in the daily Rzeczpospolita.
“The police were given a clear sign that above all they must obey political power,” wrote Biernacki, who along with Rapacki helped start the Central Investigation Bureau. He said the shakeup was the government's “revenge for the Starachowice affair, revenge against the police. Rapacki is a symbol of the fight against organized crime.”
The Central Investigation Bureau led the operation that resulted in the arrest of the SLD politicians in Starachowice.
The new police commander dismissed talk of a political subtext behind the firings. Link
posted by BEING HAD at 4:56 AM
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