Polish interior minister survives confidence motion
Wednesday, 29-Oct-2003 11:01AM PST Story from AFP
Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)

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WARSAW, Oct 29 (AFP) - Poland´s Interior Minister Krzysztof Janik on Wednesday survived a vote of no-confidence after being accused by the parliamentary opposition of being responsible for a damaging corruption scandal involving top politicians and organised crime.

The motion, the 11th in two years against a minister in the leftist government of Prime Minister Leszek Miller, was rejected by 216 to 204, with seven deputies abstaining in the 460-seat lower house of parliament.

The vote came after police chief, General Antoni Kowalczyk, earlier resigned and was promptly replaced after being implicated in a corruption affair involving politicians, organised crime and the government.

Kowalczyk, who had been police chief for two years, was replaced by Leszek Szreder, 49, police chief in the northern town of Gdansk.

Kowalczyk has been accused of a dubious role in an affair involving links between officials of the ruling Social Democratic Party (SLD) and gangsters in Starachowice, an industrial town in central Poland.

His head was the latest to roll in the affair, after deputy Polish Interior Minister Zbigniew Sobotka was charged last month with causing a leak which led to the tipping off of two gangsters about a planned police swoop.

The scandal around Sobotka, who is close to Miller, blew up in July when the press revealed mafia-style links of SLD party officials at Starachowice.

Another SLD deputy, Andrzej Jagiello, is said to have tipped off the gangsters of a planned police operation against them. In the telephone call, which was recorded by the police, Jagiello said he had been informed by Sobotka.

Jagiello has already been charged and been stripped of his parliamentary immunity.

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Polish doctors, ambulance crews charged for 19 deaths in cash-for-corpses scandal
MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press Writer

(10-20) 12:40 PDT WARSAW, Poland (AP) --

Prosecutors have charged two doctors and two ambulance workers with murder for letting patients die or killing them outright in order to collect kickbacks from funeral homes, officials said Wednesday.

The four defendands were charged in a total of 19 deaths. Under the alleged scheme, funeral homes in the central city of Lodz paid the emergency workers bribes to give them early tip-offs about deaths so the homes could snap up clients. Prosecutors say the defendants went a step further and killed patients.

Prosecutors suggested the charges made so far may only be the beginning. Investigators are analyzing thousands of patient deaths in Lodz in recent years, and probes of suspected bribery by ambulance staff are under way in about a dozen other cities.

Judicial spokeswoman Malgorzata Glapska-Dudkiewicz said the investigation is continuing in Lodz.

So far police have not contended that the funeral homes knew that the doctors and ambulance workers may have been killing people. Police have questioned undertakers but so far none have been charged in the scheme.

The two doctors were charged with a total of 14 counts of negligent homicide for allegedly letting patients die and taking money from undertakers, prosecutors said.

A 35-year-old ambulance crew member is accused of killing four patients with injections of a muscle relaxant and informing funeral homes of the deaths in exchange for a total of least $6,200, prosecutors said.

The man, identified only as Andrzej N., previously had been suspected of two such killings.

In the indictments filed Wednesday, a 37-year-old suspect identified as Karol B. was also charged with a similar killing, judicial spokeswoman Malgorzata Glapska-Dudkiewicz said.

Both ambulance crew suspects are charged with murder for motives "deserving special condemnation," which carries a penalty of between 12 years and life in prison, she said. The deaths happened in 2000 and 2001.

In 2002, police launched an investigation into ambulance staff suspected of taking bribes from funeral parlors.

The investigation grabbed national attention after Polish media aired allegations that some crews may have delayed ambulance arrivals or administered drugs that resulted in the death of severely ill patients.

State officials have acknowledged the system is prone to corruption. They blame low pay for government-employed medical workers and a lack of laws regulating intense competition among funeral homes.

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Poland's Cash-For-Corpses Scandal

(AP) Prosecutors have charged two doctors and two ambulance workers with murder for letting patients die or killing them outright in order to collect kickbacks from funeral homes, officials said Wednesday.

The four defendands were charged in a total of 19 deaths. Under the alleged scheme, funeral homes in the central city of Lodz paid the emergency workers bribes to give them early tip-offs about deaths so the homes could snap up clients. Prosecutors say the defendants went a step further and killed patients.

Prosecutors suggested the charges made so far may only be the beginning. Investigators are analyzing thousands of patient deaths in Lodz in recent years, and probes of suspected bribery by ambulance staff are under way in about a dozen other cities.

Judicial spokeswoman Malgorzata Glapska-Dudkiewicz said the investigation is continuing in Lodz.

So far police have not contended that the funeral homes knew that the doctors and ambulance workers may have been killing people. Police have questioned undertakers but so far none have been charged in the scheme.

The two doctors were charged with a total of 14 counts of negligent homicide for allegedly letting patients die and taking money from undertakers, prosecutors said.

A 35-year-old ambulance crew member is accused of killing four patients with injections of a muscle relaxant and informing funeral homes of the deaths in exchange for a total of least $6,200, prosecutors said.

The man, identified only as Andrzej N., previously had been suspected of two such killings.

In the indictments filed Wednesday, a 37-year-old suspect identified as Karol B. was also charged with a similar killing, judicial spokeswoman Malgorzata Glapska-Dudkiewicz said.

Both ambulance crew suspects are charged with murder for motives "deserving special condemnation," which carries a penalty of between 12 years and life in prison, she said. The deaths happened in 2000 and 2001.

In 2002, police launched an investigation into ambulance staff suspected of taking bribes from funeral parlors.

The investigation grabbed national attention after Polish media aired allegations that some crews may have delayed ambulance arrivals or administered drugs that resulted in the death of severely ill patients.

State officials have acknowledged the system is prone to corruption. They blame low pay for government-employed medical workers and a lack of laws regulating intense competition among funeral homes.

Link

Council of Europe Anti-Torture Committee visits Poland

19.10.2004 - A delegation of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a visit to Poland from 4 to 15 October 2004. It was the Committee's third periodic visit to Poland, the previous visits having taken place in 1996 and in 2000.

The CPT's delegation reviewed measures taken by the Polish authorities in response to the Committee's recommendations made after the visit in 2000, in particular as regards the safeguards offered to persons detained by the police, the treatment of foreign nationals held under the aliens legislation and prison conditions.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

- Ingrid LYCKE ELLINGSEN, Head of delegation (Norwegian)
- Aleš BUTALA (Slovenian)
- Andres LEHTMETS(Estonian)
- Tatiana RADUCANU (Moldovan).

They were supported by Petya NESTOROVA, Head of Unit, and Borys WODZ, of the CPT's Secretariat, and assisted by three experts: Eric DURAND, former Head of the Medical Services at Fleury-Mérogis Prison, France, Zdenek HÁJEK, lawyer, Czech Republic, and James McMANUS, Professor of Criminal Justice, Glasgow Caledonian University, United Kingdom.

In the course of the visit, the delegation met Andrzej GRZELAK, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Justice, Andrzej BRACHMANSKI, Secretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, as well as senior officials of the Ministries of Justice, Internal Affairs and Administration, and Health. Fruitful discussions were also held with Andrzej ZOLL, Commissioner for Civil Rights Protection, and members of his office.

The delegation visited the following places:

Police establishments

- Municipal Police Command, Bialystok, ul. Bema 4
- Provincial Police Command, Cracow, ul. Mogilska 109
- 3rd District Police Command, Cracow, ul. Pedzichów 5
- Municipal Police Command, Elblag, ul. Tysiaclecia 3
- County Police Command, Gizycko, al. 1-go Maja 26
- Municipal Police Command, Olsztyn, ul. Partyzantów 23
- Municipal Police Command, Suwalki, ul. Pulaskiego 26
- Metropolitan Police Command, Warsaw, ul. Nowolipie 2
- District Police Command, Warsaw - Bielany, ul. Zeromskiego 7
- District Police Command, Warsaw - Praga Poludnie, ul. Grenadierów 73/75 and ul. Uminskiego 22
- District Police Command, Warsaw - Wola, ul. Zytnia 36
- Provincial Police Command, Wroclaw, ul. Muzealna 2/4
- District Police Command, Wroclaw - Sródmiescie, ul. Grunwaldzka 6

- Police establishment for children in Cracow
- Police establishment for children in Elblag

Border Guard establishments

- Detention facility at the Kuznica Bialostocka Border Crossing
- Detention facility of the Podlaski Border Guard Unit, Bialystok
- Border Guard post in Szudzialowo
- Detention facility of the Warminsko-Mazurski Border Guard Unit, Ketrzyn
- Detention facilities at Warsaw International Airport

Prison establishments

- Cracow Remand Prison and Prison Hospital
- Warsaw-Mokotów Remand Prison
- Wolów Prison.

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US urges Poland to change law after trial for insulting pope
Oct 14 '04


WARSAW (AFP) — The United States called on Poland to reform its penal code to remove clauses that criminalize libel or slander, after the trial of a journalist for insulting Pope John Paul II.

Jerzy Urban, editor of the weekly satirical Nie and a former spokesman for the Polish Communist government, is currently on trial and could face between three months and three years in prison if found guilty.

Prosecutors launched the case after a complaint by the conservative Law and Justice party over an article "Walking Sado-Masochism" written about the pope's last visit to his native Poland in August 2002.

Urban described the pope as a "fading old man" and a "senile divinity."