Monday, May 23, 2005

Polish official offers resignation

May 23, 2005

WARSAW, Poland --Poland's interior minister offered his resignation Monday amid reports of growing corruption in police forces around the country, his office said.

The offer from Interior Minister Ryszard Kalisz is the latest in a series of blows to Prime Minister Marek Belka's beleaguered Cabinet.

It was not immediately clear whether Belka would accept the resignation, said Interior Ministry spokesman Jaroslaw Skowronski.

Kalisz's office announced last week it was investigating allegations that federal police officers had been stealing and selling confiscated drugs, one of several recent scandals involving the country's police.

Belka's governing Democratic Left Alliance is struggling with single-digit support, as Poland heads into national elections in September.

Belka's economy minister, Jerzy Hausner, resigned in March, followed by Environment Minister Jerzy Swaton. A resignation letter was submitted then by Health Minister Marek Balicki, but was not accepted.

Belka himself offered to resign recently, hoping for earlier elections, but President Aleksander Kwasniewski refused to accept his resignation.

Belka said he had wanted to quit government to devote time to forming a new centrist party.
Link

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Police detained an independent journalist and charged him with assaulting a police officer!

On Mon 16th May in Warsaw, during politicians' talks during the third summit of the Council of Europe, demonstrations organised by grassroots citizens' movements from around Poland. The demonstrators protested against the hypocrisy of Council of Europe politicians and the inclusion of states in which human rights are violated (e.g. Russia and Turkey) and whose leaders are responsible for the war in Iraq.
After the demonstration, a conflictual incident with the police occurred. The full events were reported live by Independent Media - INDYMEDIA POLAND. When protesters started leaving to go home, police started checking people's identities and detained a selected number of people (see the film at indymedia poland).

11 people were detained, including 3 members of Amnesty International, a woman journalist working together with Indymedia as well as an Indymedia reporter, who was filming the police behaviour during the demonstration with a film camera. The Indymedia reporter - Grzegorz Prujszczyk - was wearing a reflective orange vest with the word PRESS and was reporting and documenting the demonstration; he was in no way involved in the conflictual incident which had occurred earlier with the police. The police have filed against him summary charges of assaulting a police officer; the first court hearing occurred Wed 18th May (today). Neither family nor journalists were given access to him. The court decided to commit Grzegorz to (partial) police custody until the next hearing. He is threatened with a penalty with a maximum sentence of 8 years' imprisonment. Lesser charges were placed against 10 other people, for example, insulting police officers, and they were freed after about 20 hours of detention.

From the account of one of the detainees, we found out that the police several times transgressed their rights. Ex-detainee Andrzej Dołecki claims that:

Police surveying the detainees (as well as those in the police vans transporting detainees to the police station) refused to give their names and service numbers.
During transport to the police station as well as at the police station, the police made threats against us and made insulting comments.
For many hours after the detention began, we were denied food and water.
In several incidents, unjustified violent actions were used against us (arm twisting, pushing us against metallic parts of the vans, walls, rough pushing and pulling, shouts and threats).
During preparation of paperwork, our right to have any information at all was vigorously and emphatically refused.
Trumped-up charges against us were prepared at the police station. A senior "official" dictated to younger policemen, successively suggesting new "faults", resulting in heavier charges against us.
We have indisputable evidence of Grzegorz Prujszczyk's innocence (photos, film recordings, witness statements), which we can provide to any interested journalists. We are convinced that the detention of this Indymedia reporter is because of his journalist work carried out during the demonstration. This is an obvious violation of freedom of speech and a constraint against independence of the media.

We would like to appeal for solidarity for this Indymedia journalist, for publication of this information around the world as well as for appeals to Polish governmental institutions and media.
Link

Friday, May 13, 2005

Program carried out in collaboration with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

During the UE accession period Poland was perceived as the most corrupt of the accession countries. 2005 Transparency International Corruption Index situates Poland in the middle of the scale (positions between 39th and 70th) but with each year its rank gets lower. In the 2005 ranking of Central and Eastern European countries only Romania was evaluated as the country more corrupted than Poland. In Poland there is still a strong acceptance of corrupt behavior, especially in everyday matters. The study commissioned by the Foundation indicates that while 80 per cent of Polish citizens believe giving bribes is immoral, as many as 42 per cent claim it is justified under certain circumstances. Reports and studies leave no doubt whatsoever: Poland is not capable of combating corruption effectively.

The Anti-Corruption Program aims at reducing the scale of the corruption problem in Poland by fostering attitude shifts amongst citizens with respect to everyday corruption, advocating new legislation to ensure transparency of decision-making and organizing permanent community pressure on the government to enforce anti-corruption laws and regulations.

The work of the Anti-Corruption Program was initiated in 2000 by public awareness campaign run under the slogan Corruption. You don’t have to give, you don’t have to participate! with which we wanted to draw the attention of public opinion to the plague of corruption. Currently the Program’s activities concentrate on monitoring the authorities at national and local level, diagnosing the mechanism of corruption in concrete areas and professions and building social movement for transparency in public life.

Note: For the complete article including links, please click "HERE".
Link
Program carried out in collaboration with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.

During the UE accession period Poland was perceived as the most corrupt of the accession countries. 2005 Transparency International Corruption Index situates Poland in the middle of the scale (positions between 39th and 70th) but with each year its rank gets lower. In the 2005 ranking of Central and Eastern European countries only Romania was evaluated as the country more corrupted than Poland. In Poland there is still a strong acceptance of corrupt behavior, especially in everyday matters. The study commissioned by the Foundation indicates that while 80 per cent of Polish citizens believe giving bribes is immoral, as many as 42 per cent claim it is justified under certain circumstances. Reports and studies leave no doubt whatsoever: Poland is not capable of combating corruption effectively.

The Anti-Corruption Program aims at reducing the scale of the corruption problem in Poland by fostering attitude shifts amongst citizens with respect to everyday corruption, advocating new legislation to ensure transparency of decision-making and organizing permanent community pressure on the government to enforce anti-corruption laws and regulations.

The work of the Anti-Corruption Program was initiated in 2000 by public awareness campaign run under the slogan Corruption. You don’t have to give, you don’t have to participate! with which we wanted to draw the attention of public opinion to the plague of corruption. Currently the Program’s activities concentrate on monitoring the authorities at national and local level, diagnosing the mechanism of corruption in concrete areas and professions and building social movement for transparency in public life.

Note: For the complete article including links, please click "HERE".

Friday, May 06, 2005

POLISH NEWS BULLETIN

Interior Ministry in Chaos -

Strange things happened yesterday at the Ministry of Interior, following press revelations about policemen supporting a large-scale theft operation. While the Deputy Minister Andrzej Brachmanski was going out of his way to deny every word of the Gazeta Wyborcza article, his boss, Minister Ryszard Kalisz resigned from his position.

I am determined to check all this out and make the culprits suffer, as the involvement of any policeman in criminal activity is unacceptable. Ryszard Kalisz, Ministry of Interior Affairs, on the alleged corruption disclosed by Gazeta Wyborcza daily within the country's police headquarters.

and, in a seperate story...

Interior minister resigns

Poland’s interior minister Ryszard Kalisz has resigned following media reports on corruption on high levels of the police force. The mass circulation Gazeta Wyborcza wrote today that high ranking officers from the police headquarters allegedly cooperated with and provided protection to truck robbers. It claimed that the Central Bureau of Investigation organized a sting operation to target the gang and discovered a police officer among its members. The daily reported that air conditioners stolen from a lorry transport were installed in the police headquarters in Warsaw. The interior ministry and the police firmly denied these revelations.

Earlier, the news media reported that 20 kilos of cocaine and 24 kilos of heroin, seized from drug rings, had disappeared from a police warehouse. Some sources even put the amount of the drugs that vanished at 120 kilos. The scandal caused minister Kalisz to close the Poznan and Lodz branches of the elite Central Bureau of Investigation.
Link

Thursday, May 05, 2005

Sebastian Kornhauser was released by Poland in Mid-October 2005. This was sent to the Police and Administrative Corruption page on 31 October.

Sebastian Kornhauser
Rosebery House
96B Harwood Road
Fulham Broadway
London SW6 4QJ
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)207 610 9988
30th October 2005
RE: Complaint against Poland
(a) Unlawful and Extrajudicial Activity by the Polish police.

In light to what has happened I wish to write my story for investigation and publication concerning the severity of state persecution against me which resulted in unlawful detention without trial in Poland and the ‘charges’ of espionage against me. There are people who know what they have been framed for and there are those who don’t know. I am one of them. Throughout the past 6 months I have been persecuted and hunted in Poland by the state and by a corrupt police force in Krakow for reasons which defy understanding. On Thursday 13th October 2005 I left Poland never to return again.

Krakow, a town in southern Poland is the ancestral home where my fore parents once lived during the times of the Austro Hungarian Empire up until the Second World War. Between 1941 and 1943 many of them have been arrested in Krakow and placed on deportation trains to Auschwitz concentration camp where they have been murdered.

Outside the United Kingdom, the places of choice where I once considered living in were the Czech Republic, Poland and Scandinavia. I took into account the ability to communicate in Polish, a reasonably good local knowledge of the country, Polish nationality, some cultural ties, and as factors for consideration. The collapse of the language barrier, good value for money combined with a strong exchange rate from the pound and cheaper costs of living were decisive arguments. I came from London to live in Krakow at the end of 2004. At the same time working to provide business export solutions to Polish manufacturers nationwide throughout Poland.

Amongst others, some of the contracts I was engaged in were the export of radar components and tank tracks to Bolivia, then at a later stage I coordinated the negotiations and export contracts for munitions, ordinance, air defence systems and surface to air missiles between Polish armament manufacturers and the Ministry of defence of India in New Delhi, in the capacity of a government and defence consultant. The vision I had was to arrange for the complete overhaul of India’s aging air defence system and create long term business opportunities beneficial to Polish manufactures such as ZMT ‘Zaklady Mechaniczne in Tarnow’ the manufacturers of anti aircraft guns and Zaklady Metalowe Mesko in Skarzysko Kamienne the manufactures of munitions and the GROM surface to air missile as well as for the Indian government by organising tenders for the procurement of combined packages, its delivery and supply to the armed forces inclusive with guarantees, servicing and spare parts throughout the whole of the Indian sub continent.
I did not know that other polish state owned / state sponsored defence export agencies comprised of ex communist party members from the previous government and the secret services from the former SB already operate an unofficial covert blanket monopoly over the international export of the entire Polish defence industry. I once believed in fair competition, honesty, integrity and transparency as the fundamental hallmarks of professionalism in consultancy but these qualities landed me in prison where I was detained without trial. There are people who cannot stomach clarity, transparency and a direct service approach in the arms trade. In an irony of paradoxes it was transparency and professional integrity which brought trouble to me. It defies understanding how unclear, murky and dishonest corporate business in Poland can be.

On 5th May 2005 14 men from a special under cover police force stormed my flat in Krakow without a warrant dressed in black with machine guns and dogs to arrest me. They ripped up and threw away my Israeli flags which were hanging by the windows and smashed CDs in the flat. This can only be understood as an act of malice and anti Semitism. They abducted me from my home by stealth. That evening I have been severely beaten, kicked, punched and grievously assaulted by two plain clothes police officers at Ul. Simierackiego 24 police investigative centre in Krakow.

Everything was organised in secrecy. Transportation and movement through the city of Krakow to and from different police stations in different unmarked cars, the appearance at the preliminary summary hearing on Saturday 7th May 2005. During this process the secret police fitted me with an orange harness with hand cuffs attached on each side as an idea that will prevent me from escaping. The hearing lasted less than 15 minutes. The judge, (SSR Artur Szymanski) did not seem much older than me. He wore blue jeans and white adidas trainers. During the brief hearing he donned on a black cloak and played judge. This was the first real picture of polish justice for me which in my mind depicted a lack of judicial integrity. No one knew of my whereabouts or about the fact that I have been arrested, kidnapped and detained without trial. I was forbidden access to see a doctor to tend to the bruising in an extraordinary effort to cover up and evade responsibility and criminal accountability. An escort of 5 armed men was with me at all times.

It was clear that someone had used associates in the judiciary and the polish secret service in Krakow as go betweens under the guise of an already corrupt justice system to initiate a malicious prosecution. The charges against me were vague and unclear. The secret service stole my lap top consisting of many years of work and research together with XDA mobile phones, CDs and memory sticks in an effort to silence me, destroy evidence of my work and put me out of business through theft.

The legal pretext of the local authorities for this extrajudicial arrest and detention in Poland was for the possession of blank firing pistols without a permit. The real motive behind this action was to seize privileged information from documents and the lap top.
The police in Krakow in cooperation with the prosecutor’s office have broken every legal protocol in a desperate effort to find legal grounds to detain me. Recently the prosecutor at the organised crime section has accused me of being a foreign spy in possession of state secret information and indicted me of espionage.

The justification received from the regional judiciary was that the Polish courts legally considered me as a Pole on the basis of Polish documents on Polish territory but chose to hold me in captivity on the basis of Israeli nationality, noting that Israel does not have an extradition treaty with Poland. I believe the matter is a cover to disguise a hidden motivation of political and corporate reasons if not anti Semitic sentiment as a secondary issue. There are stealth motives at work. Painted over under the guise of justice to vilify and criminalise me in an attempt to tarnish my reputation. A method used effectively by the state to remove unwanted competition.

The legal definition used by polish courts to detain people without trial is called ‘temporary arrest’. (Tymczasowy Areszt) It lasts for a minimum of three months and is automatically extended by another three months once the first three months draw to an end. In most cases temporary arrests are extended again and again for prolonged periods of time for a maximum of two years. This detention without trial is primarily designed as a method of state repression in order to make many of the innocent people held without trial for long periods of time to admit to crimes they have been accused of which they did not commit in order to be released. Many people are detained without trial on the basis of circumstantial and hearsay evidence. Once an admission of guilt is accepted, the prosecutor makes an order for release. In turn, the prosecutor is credited with every guilty plea accepted as the admission is deemed ‘voluntary’. Everyone who is temporarily detained prefers to be found guilty by law in order to be freed quickly instead of being detained indefinitely without trial. This pressure to obtain an admission is achieved by cause, consequence and effect. The polish justice system operates a practice of guilty until proven innocent by extracting guilty pleas through force of circumstance. The extraction of pleas of guilt from people amounts to state persecution caused by unlawful incarceration and harassment. This method is illegal under the Human Rights Act as it is done so under duress.

This is nothing new. Over the years people in Poland who have lived through the Communist regime have become passively accustomed to the law being manipulated in Poland as a mechanism for state abuse. Everyone is conscious that extrajudiciality happens. Whilst Communism has dissolved the mentality and practices of the state have not. As the saying in Polish goes;‘Daj nam czlowieka a znajdziemy na niego paragraf’. It translates; ‘Give us a person and we will find something to charge him for’.

There is a comprehensive lack of transparency inside the polish justice system which to the present day is corruptible on the premise of inherent flaws from the past, robbed of judicial integrity. The judicial system remains unreformed and designed as a mechanism to repress people without trial. State repression exists without anyone knowing it still exists. Guidelines are out of date and lack credible legitimacy. There is enormous confusion about previous legislation and the present one. Laws are misinterpreted. Procedures are suited to convenience and not followed through. Without accountability before anyone the prosecutor who himself holds immunity from prosecution - does as he sees fit. ‘Law and justice’ in Poland is blurred, confused and vague, open to exploitation and abuse. The institution is rife with incitement, political, social and cultural intolerance. Institutional discrimination is widespread. Polish authorities abuse human rights in very possible way they can by using devious baits, tactics and loop holes against people whilst at the same time evading responsibility and accountability for it by covering up perpetrated abuses inside police custody.

Poland declares itself as a new member state of the European Union and a member of NATO, the Polish government speaks of Poland as a bastion of justice and respect for human rights. It makes claims to be a civil, liberal, tolerant and democratic society compatible to its membership of the European Union. The truth of the matter is that there is no respect for human dignity in Poland when people are stitched up and detained without trial on political grounds on the premise of circumstantial and hearsay evidence. The European Commission does not know what is really going on whilst Poland continues to exercise power without responsibility through the perpetration of lawless acts.

The ‘authorities’ in Krakow had detained me without trial for three months at Montelupich prison on the basis of suspicion, hearsay and assumption. I was trapped in a legal black hole and held in limbo. Between May and August 2005 I have been beaten by a number of the prison guards at this prison. The prison guards have treated me like an animal on grounds of my Israeli nationality and far worse than other Polish inmates are treated. I wore the same clothes for two months because no one knew where I was and couldn’t bring me any fresh clothes. Detainees are allowed to shower once a week, usually on a Saturday.

The District Inspectorate of Prisons in Krakow had covered up abuses of degradation of Human dignity, claiming that allegations of abuses in their prisons are unfounded. The director of the detention centre at Montelupich prison in Krakow and the prison directorate have endeavored to cover up institutional discrimination against me.

Plk.mgr. Stanislaw Potoczny, the director of Montelupich prison refused me the rights to have kosher food delivered into the prison. He explained that although he was aware of the fact that I am an Israeli national, his records show that I am polish and he can justifiably avoid having to fulfill this requirement in accordance with polish law. ‘You will be treated by me as a Polish national in Poland, therefore you are not entitled to kosher food’ when I complained, the prison guards were spiteful towards me and gave me worse food from that of other detainees. Anti-Semitism runs deep under the guise of justice. The remarks made by prison guards have been very spiteful. ‘If you don’t stop complaining we’ll send you to Auschwitz and you will leave through the chimney just as your forefathers did’. Another guard opened the cell door and made Nazi salutes before me. One in particular, a fat guard known as Gruby 4 Paski smacked me across the face many times and dragged me by force across the corridor to different cells. He was the coordinator of the internal prison riot squad used to quash riots inside prisons as they arose. There is extreme overcrowding in polish detention centres which are run down and in severe disrepair. There are over 1’000 people detained without trial at Montelupich prison in Krakow. People are locked down for 23 hours a day in cells ranging from 2, 3, 6, 12 and 14 people in one room with an opportunity for a one hour exercise period in a blue razor wire bird cage which is the size of 4 living rooms. The treatment of detainees without trial in Poland is possibly worse than that of detainees held in Camp Delta in Guantanamo Bay Cuba, the US administered detention centre. This is based on the treatment / abuse of detainees, shortages of space, food.

There was one man with whom I had shared a cell with in the first month who helped me in everyway a person could be helped. His name is Jerzy Wojtas. Mr. Wojtas is terminally ill and frail. He is waiting for an urgent kidney transplant inside the prison or else he will soon die. During Communism he had been held for over 10 years and was beaten many times a day, he has plastic organs because his kidney and other vital organs have been so badly damaged by the beatings meted out by polish prison guards, he has had several bypass operations over a space of a few years. Mr. Wojtas also needs a new set of false teeth as all of his original teeth have been knocked out whilst he was routinely clubbed and beaten across the face with batons. Detained people are treated with abject cruelty and barbarity by prison guards who have worked in the ‘Sluzba Wiezienna’ for many years. Mr. Wojtas bought me, tea, coffee, food and cigarettes for I had no money and no means to buy anything from the prison canteen which was available once every 10 days. It was available on the 5th, 15th and 25th of each month. Mr. Wojtas was able to pass on information about my detention to a military lawyer who was in a position to help me. However, as legal aid in Poland is a bureaucratic quango she was able to represent me once someone was able to cover her costs. Friends in London paid her. The military lawyer is called Mrs. Wieslawa Chmielowska, adwokat i obronca wojskowy, Kancelaria Adwokacka, Plac Dominikanski 5, 31-043 Krakow, Poland Tel No: +48 (0)12 422 1716. Her conduct was very professional.

On 1st June 2005 I wrote to inform the regional court in Krakow of the abuse and requested to be released from detention without trial. The court replied.

Sad Rejonowy dla Krakowa Srodmiescia Sygnatura akt IIkp 842/05/S
Wydzial II Karny Krakow dnia 10 czerwca 2005r
Ul. Przy Rondzie 7 Do sygn. 3 Ds. 1712/05
31-547 Krakow
Prokuratura Rejonowa
Krakow – Srodmiescie Zachod

Sad Rejonowy dla Krakowa – Srodmiescie w Krakowie Wydzial II Karny w zalaczeniu przesyla zgodnie z wlasciwoscia pismo podejrzanego Sebastiana Kornhausera z dnia 1.06.2005r stanowiac wniosek o uchylenie tymczasowego aresztowania. Jednoczesnie z uwagi na stawiane przez o zarzuty dotyczace bicia go przez funkcionariuszy Sluzby Wieziennej, ponizanie i psychologiczne torturowanie tresc przedmiotowego pisma moze stanowic takze zawiadomienie o przestepstwie.

Zastepca Przewodniczacego Wydzialu II Karnego
SSR Rafal Fidenkiewicz

The translation from Polish of the court decision is:

"Regional Court for Krakow Srodmiescie West 2nd
Section for Penal Affairs is forwarding a letter from
the accused Sebastian Kornhauser dated 1st June 2005
together with contents. The letter constitutes grounds
as a request for release from temporary arrest.
Furthermore, taking into account that the accused has
made allegations concerning beatings, physical abuse
against him by Prison functionaries from the Prison
Service, degradation and psychological torture, the
contents of the above aforementioned letter can also
be taken into account as grounds to inform the court
as official advice to report the fact that a crime has
been committed".



I remember from the prison the circumstances of another Polish inmate who was 70 years old. His name was Mateusz. He could not speak or grasp anything in his hands. He remained in a vegetative state throughout much of the time with prison infirmary nurses having to clean him every day and replace his prison clothing and nappies on a daily basis as he had very severe bowel problems. This man was vomiting and urinating and clearly needed to be in a hospital but was held in a prison because the nursing home in Poland refused to accept him. In this prison there was also a man in a wheel chair who had both his legs amputated. He was detained there for failing to appear in the regional court in Krakow on the forth floor on a charge of defamation of the church for urinating in his wheel chair outside the church in the Krakow main square because he could not find a toilet. The court amenities are not facilitated towards the needs of people with disabilities so it was impossible for him to reach the forth floor and attend. There have been so many abuses and severe human rights violations against me and other people at this detention centre by the prison guards that I cannot begin to remember due to psychological problems and post traumatic stress. Many of the inmates who were held at Montelupich prison from all over Poland have warned me unilaterally that the most violent and corrupt police force and prosecutors office from all of Poland is in Krakow. People are set up, framed, abused and beaten on a regular basis. The under cover ‘police’ in Krakow is the organised crime gang itself who is funded by the state on tax payers money. They are there to make sure that the greatest crimes and acts of injustice in Poland take place under the guise of justice. Crimes against persons and individuals in Poland are legitimized if they are committed by the police, the prosecution or members of the secret service.

For a long time, no one in Britain knew what had happened to me. The detained are under the direct supervision of the prosecutor who does all he can to prevent correspondence going in and out. The polish did everything they could do to prevent people and friends in Britain from being informed of my whereabouts. There is nothing the detained can do once isolated inside a foreign prison and locked down. Friends in Britain have shown me letters which have been returned back from Poland. All my letters addressed to polish newspapers had been returned back to me as the prosecutor did not want publicity.

Letter of 12th July 2005 sent to Montelupich Prison but returned back to Britain.
‘OK, let me rewind back. I have made contact with the British embassy in Poland, who is working with the Foreign Office in London finding out what is happening, the Foreign Office in London said that because you have dual nationality and you are in Poland you are treated as a Polish national, due to Polish law. There are two people in the Foreign Office in London that I’m dealing with and their names are Nalini Sadai and Dave Mailer, they have been liaising with the poles in Warsaw. Just in case you need the number it is 0207 008 0138. Can you give me full details of exactly why you have been imprisoned? Is there a court date? You need to fill me in on everything so that I can pass it onto the foreign office here. This is the number of the British embassy in Poland just in case you need it. +48 (0)22 311 0000’. Be strong. Mike

Since May 2005 I have received letters from the Regional and District courts as well as from the Office of the Polish president and the spokesperson for civil rights in Warsaw (Rzecznik Praw Obywatelskich). One letter from the House of Commons in London from the office of Michael Howard also got through to me in the prison about this unprecedented case.

After the prison inspectorate interviewed me about multiple and widespread abuses in Montelupich prison, the director became concerned over his future career as governor. He ordered for my immediate removal and transportation to Czerneckiego prison in Krakow Podgorze on the same day. This happened within 2 hours of my interview with the prison inspectorate. Czerneckiego prison is another detention centre in Krakow located in the former Jewish ghetto once used by the Gestapo. The conditions have not improved much there since the Second World War. I was released from Czerneckiego prison two days later on the authority of the presiding Judge at the Regional Court for Krakow Srodmiescie West who recognized the fact that I suffer from claustrophobia and that I have been abused, tormented and terrorized by prison guards.

Details of the director and the remand centre in Krakow are:
Plk.mgr. Stanislaw Potoczny
Dyrektor, Areszt Sledczy w Krakowie
Ul. Montelupich 7
31-155 Krakow
Tel: +48 (0)12 630 11 00
Fax: +48 (0)12 633 53 54
Reference No: DOP-0510/55/05/S

It is impossible to gain conventional recourse to justice in Poland. The only coherent breakthrough out of this abuse of law is to contact international governments who can raise this unprecedented extrajudiciality with the government of Poland. One of the people who had apparently raised this issue informally with the authorities in Warsaw was Mr. Alexey Alexeyevich Gromov, the press Attaché for President Vladimir Putin in Russia from the Presidential Executive Office in Moscow. I found this out from my friend in Katowice who was tortured by the polish secret police last week who dragged him out of his home in the early hours of the morning on 19th October 2005 to question him at an undisclosed location about me and the information on my lap top for 48 hours. One of the questions asked of him was ‘why does Gromov know about it’? Why was he informed’? ‘Did you think we would not find out sooner or later’?

On Tuesday 27th September 2005 the Pravda newspaper in Russia sent details of this incident to the Press Service at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, however the publication have advised that the Foreign Ministry did not vake an official declaration about this abuse of law in Poland. Clearly my friend could not have known that I have written to President Putin’s press secretary.

The polish authorities in Krakow have broken procedures and violated Polish law to abuse me in every possible way that a person can be abused. It remains unclear exactly why this is happening and what is happening, who is responsible for this and what the Polish wish to charge me for. The department for secret and classified information has become involved. One of the prosecutors in Krakow on condition of anonymity has hinted that the next case concerns espionage, state secrets and the acquisition of classified information pertaining to the development of advanced missile technology in Poland and that the matter has been referred to the national prosecutor in Warsaw. I believe the real motive for this state witch hunt against me is of a political nature.

The written decision from the police and prosecutor dated 12th May 2005 known as a protocol, lists my IT equipment, lap top, memory sticks, CDs and mobile phones as items of evidence which are be returned back to me immediately as they are of no use to the proceedings. However I have never seen them again and want my belongings returned back to me. There are thousands of documents and years of research work held on my lap top many of which have nothing to do with Poland I urgently need. Mrs. Wieslawa Chmielowska the polish military lawyer who had represented me had called this ‘a lawless and unjustified act’. This is theft and it is clear extraordinarily unlawful measures have been used to pursue a malicious prosecution. The office of the polish president does not want to resolve this incident because the Polish know that they have illegally abused the process of justice in a big way.

What has been done and what is still taking place is an affront to the principles of justice. The actions of this clandestine police force are unlawful and contrary to the Human Rights Act, the citizen’s charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Not to mention that this action is in violation of the EU – Israel Association Agreement 2000. Poland had signed this agreement in 2004 as one of the many prerequisites of joining the European Union on 1st May 2004. (I refer to the letter sent to me from Gunter Verheugen the European Commissioner on behalf of the European Commission for enlargement of 20th January 2004 to support my case). A further is a breach to the Israeli / Polish Free Trade Agreement of 1997.

With the presidential election in Poland over and the election of ultra conservative Mr. Kaczynski into the presidential office there is no guarantee that things in Poland will improve. Mr. Kaczynski and his ‘Law and Justice’ party have already made clear that they will build 4 new prisons and want Poland to be the first EU state to re instate the death penalty. I can already fore see how many innocent people will be amongst those on death row. Ruso phobia and Belarusophobia are strong in Poland. On the one hand the Polish complain that their ethnic minority in Belarus is being discriminated by the state of Belarus whilst on the other hand the Polish discriminate their own nationals and minorities in secrecy through stealth laws and extrajudiciality. This hypocrisy defies understanding. Poland does not want to respect the needs of its ethnic minority groups but instead has imposed a superficial threshold of ‘political correctness’ to look nice before the eyes of the European Union, the European Commission and the rest of the outside world.

The person who is familiar with this incident is Mr. Kazimierz Karasinski the British honorary consul at the British consulate in Krakow. Mr. Kazimierz Karasinski
Honorary Consul, British Consulate, 9 Sw. Anny Street, 31-008 Krakow, Poland
Tel: +48 (0)12 421 7030, Fax: +48 (0)12 422 4264, Mobile: +48 (0)602 220 501
Email: ukconsul@sunley.pl

In light of the severity of state persecution, cruelty and barbarity I have been subjected to over the past six months I have left Poland with a view not to return.

Sebastian Kornhauser


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Szanowny Panie,

Wydzial Inspekcji i Ochrony Informacji Niejawnych w Komendzie Wojeodzkiej Policji w Krakowie – to wydzial kontrolujacy policje. Zajmuja sie sprawami w ktorych wystepuje jakis policyjny kapus, sprawami zwiazanymi z tajnymi operacjami. Rzady Pis – u juz za chwile, wiec mysle, ze w policji nastapi daleko idace zmiany. Obecnie ta instytucja bardziej przypomina gang przestepczy, utrzymywany przez podatnikow, niz organ panstwa. Pozdrawiam,

Pawel P
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BIURO OCHRONY INFORMACJI NIEJAWNYCH I INSPEKCJI
Ml. insp. Mgr Grzegorz Karas
Naczelnik Wydzialu Skarg, Wnioskow
Komenda Glowna Policji
Biuro ochrony Informacji Niejawnych i Inspekcji
Warszawa 12
Poland
Reference No for case of Sebastian Kornhauser: AZ-S- 452/05/1

ml. insp. Piotr Kobierowski
Naczelnik Wydzialu Inspekcji i Ochrony Informacji Niejawnych
Komenda Wojewodzkiej Policji w Krakowie

Podinspektor. Mgr. Zbigniew Derenski
Zastepca Naczelnika Wydzialu Inspekcji i Ochrony Informacji Niejawnych KWP w Krakowie
Reference No for case of Sebastian Kornhauser: I-s-9399/9309/05/KJ
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From: David Naylor
To: Sebastian Kornhauser
Subject: UK EU Presidency Team
Date: 17 October 2005 – 16:32:51

Dear Mr. Kornhauser,

Thank you for your email of 2 October 2005 to Despo Michael in the UK EU Presidency Team. I am replying as Assistant Desk Officer for Poland in our Consular Directorate.
As you are a dual Polish/British national living in Poland, I am afraid that we are unable to provide you with consular assistance. If you wish to make a complaint about your treatment by the Polish authorities you should ask your lawyer to explain the procedures to you to start any legal processes. Regards,

David Naylor
Assistant Desk Officer for Greece, Scandinavia, Central Europe & The Baltic Country Casework Team
Consular Directorate OAB G/106
London – United Kingdom
Tel: 0207 008 0141
Fax: 0207 008 0165
Email: david.naylor@fco.gov.uk
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Handlarz broni oskarzony o nielegalne posiadanie broni
Ireneusz Danko – Gazeta Wyborcza Krakow 29-08-2005
Ostatnia aktualizacja 28-08-2005 23:09

Sebastian K przybyl z Londynu do Krakowa, aby doradzac polskim firmom zbrojeniowym w handlu z Indiami. Zamiast jednak intratnych kontraktow, dostal trzymiesieczny areszt i zarzut nielegalnego posiadania broni.

Bywalem w Syrii, Libanie i Jordanii. Nawet wsrod Arabow w Palestynie nie spotkalo mnie tyle nieszczescia co w Polsce – tlumaczy sie mlody mezczyzna. Choc na dopiero 27 lat, przedstawia sie jako doswiadczony doradca w miedzynarodowym handlu bronia. W spodniach bojowkach nosi kilka paszportow, m.in. brytynski, izraelski, szwajcarski, jamaiski,. W krakowie bywal od kilku lat. Stad jak twierdzi – pochodzi jego rodzina, ktora w wiekszosci zginela w Auschwitz. Rodzinne korzenie sprawily, ze jakis czas temu wystaral sie o kolejne, tym razem polskie obywatelstwo. Jesienia zeszlego roku na stale zameldowal sie w mieszkaniu wynajety przy ul. Stolarskiej, opodal amerykanskiego i francuzskiego konsulatu.

Daleko od Indii
Sebastian K. Prowadzil rozmowy handlowe w imieniu jednej z brytynskich firm z producentem amunicji – zakladami Mesko w Skarzysku – Kamiennej.
Piotr Jaromin, dyrektor Mesko ds. Handlu i marketingu chwali go jako znawce indyjskiego rynku. ‘Doskonale zorientowany’.

‘Nagle jednak z nieznanych powodow urwaly sie nasze kontakty – dodaje zdziwiony dyrektor Jaromin. Nie wiedzial ze krakowska policja interesuje sie wlascicielem kilku paszportow. Sebastian K. Podejrzewa, ze zwrocil na siebie uwage, parkujac swe auto na brytynskich numerach kolo amerykanskiego konsulatu.

‘Ulica Stolarska jest oficjalnie uznana jako strefa B przez Urzad Miasta Krakowa, na ktora mam karte postojowa. Skoro ewidentnie jestem zameldowany, to rozumiem ze jako mieszkaniec, legalnie moge parkowac – opowiada. Na poczatku maja kolejny raz zostawil samochod na Ul. Stolarskiej. Gdy wychodzil z mieszkania, podjechali funkcionariusze w nieoznaczonych radiowozach. Zadali, aby wpuscil ich do mieszkania. W srodku znalezli m.in. dwa pistolety gazowe i kilkadziesiat sztuk amunicji, w tym ostrej. To wystarczylo do aresztowania i przedstawienia zarzutu nielegalnego posiadania broni. - Nie wiedzialem, ze na pistolety chukowe w polsce trzeba miec zezwolenie. Naleze do zwiazku strzeleckiego i amunicje czasami nosze po kieszeniach. Istnieje wielka roznica w polsce miedzy prawem ustawodawczym a interpretacji prawa na etapie wykonawczym. Oczywiscie jest to absurd i pretekst prawny pod oslona sprawiedliwosci – broni sie Sebastian. K.

Dieta bez wieprzowiny
- Nieznajomosc prawa szkodzi – obstaje twardo prokurator Lucyna Czechowicz, szefowa Prokuratury Rejonowej Krakow Srodmiescie – Zachod. Byly obawy, ze podejrzany, ktoremu grozi wysoka kara, wyjedzie z kraju i nie zachce wrocic. Nie od dzis wiadomo, ze Izrael nie wydaje innym panstwom swoich obywateli. Sebastian K, przesiedzial za kratami trzy miesiace. Wolnosc odzyskal dopiero na poczatku sierpnia, kiedy prokuratura skierowala przeciw niemu akt oskarzenia do sadu. Przyznal sie do winy i zgodzil sie dobrowolnie poddac karze z przymusu sytuacji zeby wyjsc z aresztu, chociaz nie poczuwa sie winny. Nie moze jednak wyjechac za granice.

Policjantom i straznikom wieziennym zarzuca niewlasciwe traktowanie. Prosilem o koszerne jedzenie, a dostawalem tylko ‘dietyczne’, bez wieprzowiny. Drwiono ze mnie, kiedy modlilem sie w soboty – swpomina byly aresztant, ktory zamiast zydowskiego talesu zakladal na glowe czesc przescieradla. Na swoja dole skarzyl sie m.in. do rzecznika praw obywatelskich i placowek dyplomatycznych krajow, ktorych ma obywatelstwo. Sugerowal wewnetrzne matactwo i zmowe policji i prokuratury oraz antisemicki charakter ‘przesladowan’. Niewiele wskoral. Jedynie 4ego Sierpnia 2005 Sedzia Sadu Rejonowego Barbara Sroka uchylila tymczasowy areszt na niewlasciwe traktowanie. Ambasady postanowily nie wtracac sie w sprawe ‘polskiego obywatela w polsce’ Rzecznik praw obywatelskich odeslal jego pismo do krakowskiej prokuratury. Ta nie dopatrzala sie zlego traktowania aresztanta. Zastrzezen nie mial takze dyrektor Okregowej Sluzby Wieziennej w Krakowie, do ktorego aresztant zlozyl zazalenie. Wrecz przeciwnie. To Sebastian K. Mial – zdaniem nadzoru wieziennego – zachowywac sie niepoprawnie i ‘stwarzac problemy wychowawcze’.

Teraz Strasburg
Jestem ofiara polskiego bezprawia i zostalem wrobiony. Mialem juz w maju wrocic do Londynu, a nie tylko nie moge wyjechac za granice, ale rowniez pracowac na laptopach, na ktorych mam cala baze danych. Koncza mi sie srodki do zycia – narzeka Sebastian K.

Wbrew postanowieniu o dowodach rzeczowych sprzet komputerowy z plytami zajela mu juz w maju policja. Status prawny nagle zmieniono w toku sledztwa. ‘Wszczelismy odrepne postepowanie dotyczace ukrywania dokumentow – wyjasnia komisarz Sylwia Bober – Jasnoch z zespolu prasowego malopolskiej policji. Nie podaje, o co dokladnie chodzi. Sebastian K. Tymczasem szykuje skarge do trybunalu Sprawiedliwosci w Strasburgu. Chce tez zrzec sie polskiego obywatatelstwa. To zrodlo tej polapki nieszczescia – dodaje.
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Details of the prosecutor in Krakow

Lukasz Herjan
Prokurator
Prokuratura Rejonowa
Krakow Srodmiescie Zachod
Ul. Mosieznicza 2
30-965 Krakow
Reference No: 3 Ds. 1712/05/S
Court reference: II KP 1747/05/S
Tel: +48 (0)12 619 6031
Link