Friday, March 30, 2007

‘Killer hid under tarpaulin’

A POLISH man accused of murder was caught hiding under tarpaulin soon after a 26-year-old Maidenhead man was stabbed to death in a seaside town, a court has heard.
Harpal Sumon of Holyport died after being knifed in the chest and arm on a night out in Southend.

Bardhyl Haziri, 27, of Hartingdon Road, Southend, has denied murder and has been on trial at Basildon Crown Court since Thursday last week.
Mr Sumon had gone to a car cruising event with his brother Harpreet, 21, and friend Paul Sandhu and on to a night club on July 7, 2006.
Trouble broke out when they returned to their BMW parked outside Marine Parade shops on the seafront.
The victim’s brother said he was in their BMW when he saw Harpal standing with two men and their body language suggested a fight was brewing.
Mr Sumon said his brother hit one of the men who fell to the ground and was then ‘lunged at’ by Haziri. He said: “My brother shouted, ‘I have been stabbed’. He had his hands to his chest. I think he ran to get help towards the seafront.”
Harpal Sumon was taken to Southend Hospital but died shortly after.
Harpreet admitted he was ‘tipsy’ on the night of the murder and had not picked out Haziri in a police identification procedure, but insisted he was the man who attacked his brother and threw the knife into bushes.
The trial continues.
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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Airport break-in

A POLISH man was arrested yesterday after entering a restricted area at Larnaca airport by climbing over a fence.

The unnamed 43-year-old entered the area north of what is known as Gate 13. According to authorities, the man, who is employed on the island, attempted to jump over a fence close to the VIP lounge.

He was spotted by an officer from the air wing of the police, arrested and taken to Larnaca police headquarters where he was questioned with the help of an interpreter.

According to sources in Larnaca, the man treated the female interpreter in an “untoward manner.”

The man showed slight injuries on the right side of his face but police said they had managed to establish that he had been in a car accident on Monday.

Officers ran blood tests on the man and found he was heavily drunk. They suspect he may have been trying to stow away on a plane to Warsaw.

Larnaca police superintendent Soteris Hadjichristofi said the Pole was incoherent “due to intoxication”, so police would wait until he was lucid again before questioning him.
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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Polish police detain 34 in child porn operation

Polish police have detained 34 people in a sting operation against suspected users and dealers of Internet child pornography, officials said on Tuesday.
Under Polish law, police can detain suspects for 48 hours after which they have to formally charge them.

Polish Interior Ministry spokesman Michal Rachon said a nationwide operation on Monday involving 360 police seized 3 500 CD and DVD 51 computers containing 1,000 gigabytes of child pornography which had been distributed or sold via the Internet.

Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro told a news conference the operation, which was ongoing, marked the launch of a concerted effort to fight child pornography, which would include changes to Polish law. He gave no further details.

Production and distribution of pornography involving children under 18 is punishable with up to eight years in prison in Poland. If the victims are under 15, the maximum prison term rises to 10 years.
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Monday, March 26, 2007

Guard kills two police officers in Polish jail

A prison guard in the central Polish city of Sieradz went on a shooting rampage inside a medium-security detention center, killing two police officers and seriously injuring a third one, German media reports said Monday.

The 28-year-old warden fired at a police car as it entered the prison area to pick up an inmate.

The gunman then proceeded to barricade himself in a watchtower.

Anti-terror units stormed the watchtower and captured the assailant after negotiations failed.

The identity and motives of the attacker who was reportedly on a medical leave after a surgery, were not immediately known.

Overcrowded and chronically under-funded, the Polish correctional system is in a dire state of crisis.

Poland has around 40 million total inhabitants and its prison population rate is one of the highest in all of Europe.

According to the Poland Central Board of Prisons, for every 100,000 inhabitants, 210 are presently incarcerated.

Considering the rate was a mere 153 per 100,000 in 1992, and a staggering 350 and 580 per 100,000 during the 1980s, this rise is a reason for concern among Polish justice officials.

In fact, the roots of the Polish prison reform can be traced back to the early 1990s during which authorities replaced 7,000 jail staff members, about 40 percent, over a two-year period.

However, the issues of inadequate funding and resources continue to slow the prospects of such a much-needed penal reform.
Link

Friday, March 23, 2007

In Wroclaw, Polish police protected Neonazi parade and jailed antiracists

What is happening in Poland recenly? Well, the police is jailing antiracists and protects Neonazis and their parades. Hoiw is that possible, that a police squad was protecting people openly breaking the law and inciting to racial hatred?

"Polska cała, tylko biała", (Whole Poland, only white!), "Wolna Polska bez Murzynów" (Free Poland without niggers)- such slogans one could on the 21st of March 2007 on the Main Square in Wroclaw, Poland. The neonazi demonstration was legal (though slogans were illegal and werte breakling Polish constitution and penal code), but police was protecting them, instead of arresting them! You can see it on the photos taken:

http://serwisy.gazeta.pl/kraj/51,34308,4004230.html?i=0

The demonstrants from Polish Neonazi party Narodowe Odrodzenie Polski aand other organisations were citing Mussolini: "W naszym kraju jest miejsce dla czarnych - ale tylko dla czarnych koszul" (In this country there is place for black, but only for black shirts).

Their slogans included: "Nasza święta rzecz, czarni z Polski precz." (our holy thing, get the blacks out of Poland), and the demonstration was closed with the appeal of NOP:

"Polska jest krajem cywilizacji chrześcijańskiej i łacińskiej; krajem cywilizacji Białego Człowieka. Nie pozwolimy, by nasze dziedzictwo zastąpiła kultura buszu i bambusa. Dla dobra wszystkich - i Białych i Kolorowych - rozdział cywilizacyjno-kulturowy musi zostać zachowany, a każdy winien żyć tam, gdzie umieściła go ręka Najwyższego".

translation: (Poland is a country of christian and latin civilisation. We will not allow, that our heritage was replaced by the culture of bush and bamboo. For the benefit of all= white and coloured, the cultural and civilisational divide needs to be preserved, and everyone should live there where he was placed by the hand of Almighty".)

People passing by were asking policemen, why they were not reacting hearing racist slogans. They responded to the person, that the demonstration was legal. In fact, such slogans are inciting to racial hatred and these people should face legal charges.

However, no demonstrators were arrested, only two of antifascists were jailed and sentenced accused of attacking policemen. They were accused of taking part in an illegal meeting of antiracists.
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Poland Cracks Down On Liberal Media

A group of Polish journalists are refusing to be screened by the government. They say authorities are using a recently passed vetting law to hit back against the liberal opposition and conduct a witch hunt in the media.

When the well-known and fiercely independent journalist Bronislaw Wildstein was fired from his post as head of public television earlier this month, it came as no surprise to media observers in Poland.



In theory, Wildstein was answerable only to the independent national media council. But in reality, he had been the target of constant attacks from the ruling conservatives and their minority coalition partners, who demanded more air time and a friendlier news coverage.



According to government sources, Wildstein -- who consistently refused to yield to such pressure -- was fired on the personal orders of the Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the twin brother of President Lech Kaczynski. Wildstein loudly protested against what he described as politicians tampering with media freedom.



"The way I was dismissed was questionable," Wildstein said. "Purely political motives stood behind it. If this unfortunate incident is followed by more political pressure being put on public television, it will be very serious indeed."



Some 700,000 people are to be screened in Poland -- including all of the country's journalists -- in a sweeping process of outing former communist secret police agents. But many regard the campaign as controversial in view of the conservative government's growing pressure on public media to toe the official line.



The media's prestige has been ruined



Poland's main opposition party, the liberal Citizens Platform, has long voiced concern over what it regards as dangerous trends in the authorities' attitude to public media. It has published a report quoting numerous instances of journalists critical of the ruling PIS party being removed from jobs at public radio and television.




Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Rokita is highly critical of the government's media policies
In fact, Polish Radio recently announced it is making some 300 broadcasters redundant, ostensibly on the grounds of restructuring. But the report clearly showed that those who replace them are more than ready to toe the official line. Opposition leader Jan Maria Rokita is outraged at the latest changes at Polish Television.



"It's a scandal," Rokita said. "The prestige of this institution has been ruined."



Rokita said the newly appointed head of public television was until very recently in charge of the president's office.



"So a competent and independent person was replaced by a loyalist," Rokita said. "This is nothing new under this administration. The Kaczynski twins who rule Poland just couldn't stomach someone with a mind of their own."



PIS coverage is an obsession



Media monitoring expert Andrzej Krajewski from the independent Batory Foundation said he is convinced that the leaders of the ruling PIS party misunderstand the role of the media in a free society.



"I think it's like an obsession," Krajewski said. "The biggest coverage is for PIS, but only for PIS. I think it probably reflects the thinking of the two Kaczynski brothers about the media."



He said the twins thought the media should cover whatever is the most important for the country. For them, the government was the most important -- and this was their party.



"That's exactly what the media shouldn't do," Krajewski said. "The media should work for the people and usually against the government."



Are the Kaczynski twins becoming like Big Brother?



For more and more ordinary Polish viewers, public television is no longer a reliable news source. Instead, they are turning to TVN24, a round the clock news channel run by the country's largest private television network.




Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: The Kaczynski brothers have jointly ruled Poland since 2006
The Polish government has repeatedly accused the station's journalists of manipulating facts. Some officials have also hinted that its origins lie in ex-communist circles, which they claim are sabotaging the government's attempts to rid Poland of all remaining communist influence.



Yet while an increasingly number of viewers are turning to private, opposition media, conservative media commentators loyal to the government respond that there is nothing wrong with the Polish media scene. Audiences, they said, have the freedom to choose.



But media watcher Krajewski said he thinks that the Kaczynski twins have undermined one of the very foundations on which Poland's anti-communist Solidarity revolution was based two decades ago.



"Historically, independent media are one of the biggest achievements of the 18 years of freedom in Poland," Krajewski said. He said much of this could be attributed to Solidarity and its underground papers.



"I hope that these attacks which are being executed against the public media right now will not crush the independence of the media," Krajewski said. "However, the situation is definitely one to watch and one to care about."



While Krajewski sounds a cautious warning for Poland's ruling elite, other commentators go even further. Some say that the Kaczynski twins are coming disturbingly close to George Orwell's image of Big Brother -- and not in the sense of reality TV.
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Police arrest mother: new-born baby thrown to death from high-rise

A 26-year-old Polish woman was being held by German police on homicide charges Wednesday, accused of throwing her new-born baby out the window of her 10th-storey apartment.

Passers-by found the dead baby in a plastic bag in the garden of a high-rise suburban housing estate in the port city of Hamburg. The woman told police her 23-year-old Macedonian boyfriend had grabbed the little girl and flung her out the window on Saturday.

Police said they did not believe her after discovering inconsistencies in her story, and called off a nationwide manhunt for the Macedonian, 23, saying he was no longer under suspicion.

Newspaper reports said the slender woman, who worked as a babysitter, had repeatedly denied to neighbours in the housing estate that she was pregnant. She told police the Macedonian was the father of the child.

Application was made Wednesday to a court to remand her in custody based on witness testimony and forensic evidence. An autopsy showed the baby died of injuries caused by impact with the ground.

Police could not initially tell which window the baby had fallen from. The 21-storey tower-block has hundreds of apartment balconies. It is one of many high-rises built by the municipality amid lawns and gardens to accommodate low-income people, many foreign-born.
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Abortion verdict splits Poland's ruling coalition

A verdict by the European Court of Human Rights in favour of a Polish woman who nearly went blind after being denied an abortion exposed a deepening split in Poland's conservative government on Wednesday.

The Strasbourg-based court ordered Poland on Tuesday to pay the woman 39,000 euros ($52,000), enraging an ultra-nationalist party in Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski's three-party coalition. It demanded the government challenge the ruling.

"Accepting the (court's) decision would be an absolute scandal," party leader Roman Giertych, who is also education minister, told a news conference. "It would mean that abortion on demand is possible in Poland."

Giertych's League of Polish Families, which opposed Poland's European Union membership, is pushing for a total ban on abortion in the predominantly Catholic country.

Health Minister Zbigniew Religa, however, said he agreed with the verdict and did not expect Poland to appeal against it. He also spoke out against changing the current abortion law.

"I agree with Strasbourg in this case," he told private radio TOK FM. "We will probably not appeal."

The rift over abortion is the latest in a series of disputes that have shaken Kaczynski's coalition since it took power in 2006. Giertych said he would demand that Poland appeals against the Strasbourg ruling at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Poland has some of the toughest abortion laws in Europe. It allows a pregnancy to be interrupted only when it threatens the life or health of the mother, when the baby is likely to be permanently handicapped or when it originates from rape.

The League wants even those exceptions closed and is pushing to change the constitution to this effect.

Kaczynski's Law and Justice party has agreed to change the constitution to bolster the protection of unborn children but without making existing abortion rules tougher.

Analysts say Kaczynski may eventually choose to dissolve the coalition rather than continue to put up with constant infighting.

But he told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not think the abortion dispute would lead to a serious crisis.

"I cannot say what Giertych will do, but this (dispute) has no political significance for me," he said in brief comments after a meeting with an opposition leader. "I still have patience and I think we can work it out."

The case of Alicja Tysiac, who cannot see objects more than 1.5 metres (five feet) away, led to fresh debate of the abortion law, which is considered draconian by feminist groups.

Strasbourg criticised Polish law for having no procedure for resolving cases where doctors disagree over whether an abortion is justified.
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Friday, March 16, 2007

Poland's ex-president Kwasniewski and ex-PM Miller accused of corruption

Poland's former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski, former Prime Minister Leszek Miller and other prominent left-wing politicians were involved in large-scale corruption in connection with the privatization process in Poland, claims a lobbyist under arrest on charges of corruption.

Marek Dochnal, three years ago one of the most influential lobbyists in Poland, for the past two and a half years under arrest on charges of large scale corruption, has testified that Poland's most prominent left-wing politicians accepted huge bribes back when they were in power.

Among others, Dochnal names as guillty of corruption Poland's former president, Aleksander Kwaśniewski and former Prime Minister, Leszek Miller, both of Poland's previous post-communist government.

According to Marek Dochnal's recent testimonies, he himself acted as an intermediary in corruption transactions between the then Poland's top politicians and foreign companies that wanted to buy major Polish state-owned companies at stunningly low prices.

Investigative journalist Leszek Szymowski sums up the recent media revelations:

'Many Polish politicians, including ex- president and ex- prime minister took money from Marek Dochnal's customers. They had bank accounts in Switzerland. The reason of this whole affair, in my opinion, was to buy national Polish companies almost for free.'

Among other things, Dochnal was to hand in a 3 million dollar bribe to the then Prime Minister Leszek Miller for his assistance in the sale of Polish steel plants. Dochnal has also revealed, that former president Aleksander Kwaśniewski was sponsored by two German businessmen and the most prominent left-wing politicians of the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance party, including Marek Siwiec, Jacek Piechota, Marek Ungier and ex- president Aleksander Kwasniewski had secret bank accounts in Switzerland.

All this exposes the criminal circumstances in which privatization was carried out in Poland under the post-communist government of Democratic Left Alliance, says investigative journalist Leszek Szymowski:

'The scandal with Marek Dochnal shows the pathologies of privatization in Poland. A foreign corporation that wanted to buy a national Polish company preferred to hire a private lobbing company, that made possible to buy it almost for free. Marek Dochnal helped to do it, because he corrupted many Polish clerks. One of them was Andrzej Pęczak, a deputy to the Polish parliament. Pęczak was arrested when prosecutors proved that he took money and a luxurious car from Dochnal.'

According to Dochnal, one of the persons involved in the illegal business transactions of Poland's left-wing government politicians was Peter Vogel, known also as Piotr Filipczyński. Back in 1971, 17-year old Vogel was sentenced to jail for burglary and gruesome murder of an elderly woman. He was paroled in 1979 and four years later, at the request of Poland's communist secret services, of which Vogel's father was a collaborator, he received a passport and was allowed to leave Poland. In the 1990s Vogel worked for western telephone companies. Although an arrest warrant was issued for him in 1987, he often traveled to Poland freely. In 1999 he was arrested in Switzerland an extradited to Poland. The very same year, Vogel was pardoned by the then Polish president, Aleksander Kwaśniewski. The prosecutor's office is investigating the circumstances of that pardon.

Today's prominent left-wing politicians of the post-communist Democratic Left Alliance party deny the accusations spelled out by Marek Dochnal. Jerzy Szmajdziński:

'Nobody has the right to accuse other people without basis for it.'

The ruling Law and Justice party wants the suspicious connections of the previous post-communist government with the world of illegal business and corruption brought to light before the public opinion. MP Jędrzej Jędrych of the ruling Law and Justice party:

'Citizens should be aware of what is happening behind the scenes of decision making, who is working and helping there.'

If the Democratic Left Alliance politicians do not explain the situation convincingly, the ruling Law and Justice party is considering establishing a special parliamentary commission to investigate the criminal allegations against the former post-communist government.
Link

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Rape suspect faces UK extradition

A man arrested in Poland in connection with the rape and attempted murder of a Devon woman can be extradited to the UK, a court has ruled.
The 48-year-old mother from Exeter was attacked in July 2006 and left for dead under a truck.

A 24-year-old Polish national was arrested in Poznan on 9 February under a European arrest warrant.

Devon and Cornwall Police said he could appeal against the Poznan court ruling, which could take several weeks.

The victim was attacked while walking home after a night out with a friend in the city on 22 July.

She remains critically ill in hospital with serious head injuries.

A police officer from Devon travelled to Poland to oversee efforts to extradite the man.

The arrest warrant included a number of offences including attempted murder, rape and robbery.
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Diamonds Worth 1.5 Million Vanish From Safe At Amberiff Amber Fair

Diamonds worth an estimated 1.5 million dollars have vanished from a safe deposit at the annual Amberiff amber fair on the Polish Baltic Sea port city of Gdansk, the Polish PAP news agency reported Thursday quoting police.

The diamonds belonged to Belgian jewelers displaying their goods at Amberiff, the world's largest annual amber trade fair.

The gems apparently disappeared from a safe overnight after having been deposited Wednesday evening. Police were investigating.
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New Polish vetting law operative

New vetting law comes into force today obliging 700,000 Poles including journalists, lawyers and head teachers to declare whether they collaborated with the communist-era secret police.
The legislation was designed by President Lech Kaczynski and the ruling conservative the Law and Justice Party (PiS) government of his twin brother, Prime Minister Jaroslaw.

Its aim was to settle accounts with former communists. As a result, people from various professions including municipal government officials, university professors, legal professionals, journalists and corporate as well as bank chiefs born prior to August 1, 1972 are required to submit statements revealing any co- operation with communist-era secret police and intelligence services.

Those who fail to do so or have courts ruled against them risk being banned from their professions for up to a decade.

According to the critics of the project, the process of verifying hundreds of thousands of declarations is estimated to last until 2023. Declarations are to be submitted to the National Remembrance Institute which was created in 1998.
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Footage of women undressing in Polish Tesco changing room posted on the internet

Tesco has promised a full investigation after changing room footage of scantily clad women in one of its Polish stores was posted on the internet.

The company said it was "appalled" by the film, which includes a running commentary, and is thought to have been shot by security guards at the store in Gorzow, western Poland.

The footage reportedly shows a girl under the age of 16 trying on a bra, and another young woman trying on a swimsuit. It is thought the footage was filmed during a summer sale period when the store had erected temporary changing rooms without a roof.

A spokeswoman for Tesco in the UK told Personnel Today: "We are appalled by this incident and we are currently assisting the police with their investigation. Tesco complies with Polish law and does not permit the use of CCTV footage in any of its changing facilities."

Robert Polis, a customer at Tesco's Gorzow store, told a local newspaper he was angered by the film. "If I found out that someone had taken those sorts of pictures of my wife, I would give them a kick in the face," he said.

The retail giant, which has 107 stores in Poland employing more than 20,000 staff, was accused earlier this year of treating workers in its Polish stores "like criminals". Shop-floor workers said they were subjected to "rough and humiliating" body searches and "aggressive and degrading" behaviour from store managers.
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Saturday, March 10, 2007

Pole accused of people smuggling

A senior visa officer at the Canadian Embassy in Warsaw has been charged with 100 counts of fraud for allegedly using her position to smuggle hundreds of people -- including some criminals -- into the country without security checks.

Warsaw security police seized $175,000, jewelry and about $7,500 Cdn from a bag being carried by a suspect, who's identified in the Polish press as Michalina Hoffman, 61, a Polish citizen employed at the embassy for 30 years.

Since her arrest last week, hundreds of immigration files in the visa section have been frozen as investigators search for fraud.

The arrest stemmed from a Toronto Sun article in February last year after Toronto-area Poles complained about having to pay bribes at the embassy to obtain Canadian documents.

Warsaw police said the woman was arrested with six men, whose alleged roles were to collect payments from Poles with criminal records who wanted to travel to Canada or others in the Toronto-area who wanted to bring relatives here.
Link

Friday, March 09, 2007

Polish archbishop, officials ignored child sex abuse, says newspaper

A Polish newspaper has reported that diocesan officials and an archbishop ignored cases of pedophilia and sex abuse of minors by priests in the Diocese of Plock, Poland.

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The Rzeczpospolita daily reported March 6 that Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus and other officials of the diocese had been kept informed for at least six years by pastors of victims' parishes about priest sex abuse of minors. Archbishop Wielgus was the head of the Plock Diocese from 1999 until he was appointed to head the Archdiocese of Warsaw in January. He quickly resigned after admitting he had collaborated with the communist secret police.

The newspaper said other priests had confirmed the claims and that it had received testimonies from several abuse victims since Rzeczpospolita published its first report March 3.

"Several priests exploited the trust of children in their care to get close to boys and have sexual contacts with them," the newspaper said. "The names of the same diocesan clergy recur in the accounts we've heard.

"Although church leaders were informed, however, they took no effective steps to prevent suspect priests from contacting young people," it said.

Auxiliary Bishop Roman Marcinkowski of Plock, who said the diocese had received no official complaints of molestation, called the claims "fragmentary and based on gossip."

"It's hard to accuse someone when there's no unambiguous proof against them," Bishop Marcinkowski told Poland's Catholic information agency, KAI, March 6.

Rzeczpospolita said a local priest, Father Jaroslaw Nawatkowski, had been cautioned by police when child pornography images were found on his computer in July 2006. It said another priest, identified as Father K, had given up lecturing at the Plock seminary after accusations of abuse but that he was still in touch with former victims and teaching in the same building.

Meanwhile, Father Adam Boniecki, editor of Poland's Catholic Tygodnik Powszechny weekly, said his newspaper had proposed guidelines for handling abuse cases but had not received a response from church leaders.

"What has happened in Plock Diocese results from the fact that the bishops' conference in Poland has not worked out any clear procedure for dealing with cases when priests are accused of pedophilia and homosexuality, despite the church's experiences in Ireland and the U.S.," Father Boniecki told Rzeczpospolita March 6.

"This indifference by church institutions is now taking its revenge. Local bishops have neither the tools nor the courage to deal with such problems," he said. "Yet this isn't a new issue which no one knew about."
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Polish diocese briefs police on sex-abuse charges

Poland’s daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita is reporting that the Diocese of Plock has given police the names of three priests accused of sexually abusing minors. One of the priests is said to have fled the country.

Charges of clerical sex-abuse have spilled out into public discussion in Plock in recent weeks, following the separate charges of collaboration with Communist agents that were lodged against the former head of the diocese, Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus.
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Polish men face extradition following raids

TWO men who are wanted in Poland were arrested in the News Shopper region yesterday, during a series of raids across London targetting foreign criminals.

Daniel Bankowski was arrested by the Extradition Unit from the Met at an address in Downham Way, Bromley, yesterday at 6am.

The Polish national is wanted in his home country for assault, criminal damage, and for threatening the life of a witness.

The 23-year-old's arrest warrant was issued on January 8 this year.

Bankowski was sharing a small one-room bedsit with his parents when he was arrested and will now face extradition to Poland.

A 32-year-old Polish man was also arrested on an extradition warrant for suspicion of fraud in his native country.

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The man was arrested at an address in Lewisham and is one of 22 extradition arrests across the capital yesterday.

Suspects are alleged to have committed crimes in countries including Spain, France, Poland and America, which had all issued international warrants for their arrest in the last six months.

Those arrested include an alleged rapist, a suspected drug trafficker and one suspect wanted for kidnap.

Police said some of the suspects were from Eastern Europe - from Poland, which joined in 2004, and Romania which joined in January this year - and here legally after they joined the EU and were free to travel to other member states without restrictions.

A spokesman said: "The number of extradition requests did rise by 21 per cent last year and we think it is because of an increase in requests from Eastern Europe.

"Most, if not all, of those targeted today are in Britain legally and most are from the EU."

The requests for extradition came via the Serious and Organised Crime Agency and the Home Office.

Detective Superintendent Nigel Mawer, Head of the Economic and Specialist Crime Directorate, including the extradition unit said: "Yesterday was an extremely successful day in making London a safer city.
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Poland's former prime minister denies report alleging Poland hosted secret jails

Poland's former prime minister Leszek Miller today denied a fresh report alleging EU and NATO member Poland had hosted secret jails for terror suspects operated by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Raw Story reports.

'Once again I refute that there were secret prisons in Poland,' Miller said Thursday, quoted by the Polish PAP news agency. 'Tony Blair never spoke with me about this because there was nothing to talk about,' he said.

Raw Story, a US-based internet news source quoted a confidential MI-6 British intelligence document which is alleged to have said British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Miller discussed plans for a short term CIA prison for terror suspect created in a top-security Polish intelligence compound in Stary Kiejkuty, northern Poland.

Blair is to have asked that Miller not inform cabinet ministers about the facility. The Raw Story report also alleges US plans for transporting terror suspects to Poland were drawn up in 2002 in meeting between Polish intelligence officials, then CIA head George Tenet and MI-6 chief John Scarlett.

In related News, Former Polish intelligence chief Zbigniew Siemiatkowski, who denied Raw Story's report on a secret CIA detention site Thursday, told Polish news agency PAP in 2005 that the agency had access to two internal zones at the Stare Kiejkuty training school, the Raw Story reports.

Siemiatkowski, Polish intelligence chief in 2002, suggested the information presented by Raw Story "could be part of the domestic political battle in the US over who is to succeed current Republican President George W Bush," according to the German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur.

Polish newspapers seized on the story in Thursday's papers. Allegations of secret meetings held by Britain and the United States surrounding the detention of terror suspects - and an invitation from officials in the administrations of US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that Poland join the project in 2002 - were widely discussed on morning talk shows.

Former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller denied that Poland had housed any "secret CIA prisons" Thursday. US and British officials did not reply.

Raw Story sought comment from the Polish government three days prior to the report and received no response.

The White House did not respond to two calls placed for comment Tuesday.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to address specific allegations by British and Polish intelligence officials that the agency had operated a detention site at Stare Kiejkuty, a Soviet-era compound once used by the Russians. "The agency's terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives," Gimigliano said Monday. "That is also true of renditions, another key, lawful tool in the fight against terror."
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Polish church leaders criticize priest's book that examines clergy

Vandals in western Poland badly damaged half the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery. Half of the 20 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Swidin were broken March 1, according to Albert Stankowski of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw.

"This was done during the same time as the Claims Conference was visiting in Poland, and I have no doubt that the act against the cemetery was related," he said. Stankowksi was referring to a Claims Conference meeting last week with the government about compensation for Jewish property stolen by the Nazis and communists.

"The articles in the press gave readers the feeling that the Jews were coming to take their property away, and an evangelical priest in the town thinks the people who did this to the cemetery were reacting to that," he said.

It was the third time in five years that the cemetery was attacked. Last year, when three tombstones were damaged, Stankowski asked the regional prosecutor to investigate.

"The prosecutor told us it was the wind that caused the problem. So I brought it to a higher prosecutor and the case was still under investigation when this destruction happened, he said. "But I can tell you that the police have shown no interest in really investigating the case."
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Polish Jewish cemetery vandalized again

Vandals in western Poland badly damaged half the tombstones in a Jewish cemetery. Half of the 20 tombstones in the Jewish cemetery of Swidin were broken March 1, according to Albert Stankowski of the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Warsaw.

"This was done during the same time as the Claims Conference was visiting in Poland, and I have no doubt that the act against the cemetery was related," he said. Stankowksi was referring to a Claims Conference meeting last week with the government about compensation for Jewish property stolen by the Nazis and communists.

"The articles in the press gave readers the feeling that the Jews were coming to take their property away, and an evangelical priest in the town thinks the people who did this to the cemetery were reacting to that," he said.

It was the third time in five years that the cemetery was attacked. Last year, when three tombstones were damaged, Stankowski asked the regional prosecutor to investigate.

"The prosecutor told us it was the wind that caused the problem. So I brought it to a higher prosecutor and the case was still under investigation when this destruction happened, he said. "But I can tell you that the police have shown no interest in really investigating the case."
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Monday, March 05, 2007

Sex-abuse allegations rip Polish diocese

In Poland, new accusations have been aired about sexual abuse of young men in the Diocese of Plock.

The daily Rzeczpospolita charges that in Plock, diocesan officials have been aware of sexual buse by priests, and has not acted to address the problem. The diocese has not responded to the accusations.

(The Plock diocese had been lead for the past 7 years by Archbishop Stanislaw Wielgus, who became the focus of a different sort of controversy after he was appointed Archbishop of Warsaw. He was forced to resign, shortly before his scheduled installation in Warsaw, in the face of accusations that he had been an informer for the secret police under the Communist regime.) A priest of the Plock diocese, quoted anonymously by Rzeczpospolita, said that the sex-abuse problems could be traced back to the 1970s, under the leadership of the late Bishop Bogdan Sikorski. At that time, the priest charged, some priests were preying on young men in the seminary; now those victims are priests, and they are repeating the offense with altar boys.

Father Adam Boniecki, the editor of the Catholic weekly Tygodnik Powszechny, argued that there is no excuse for a failure to confront sexual abuse by clerics. “What took place in the Diocese of Plock,” he said, “is a consequence of the fact that in Poland, the bishops have not established clear procedures. The experience of the Church in Ireland and the USA demonstrated the necessity of procedures on how to act in the case of an accusation of pedophilia or homosexuality against a priest. The passivity of the institutional church is now deafening. Local bishops do not have the tools and courage in order to address such problems. After all, this is not a new phenomenon about which no one knew.”
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3 labourers die in blast during oil exploration

Three labourers were killed in an explosion during exploration of oil and gas being carried out by a team of a Polish company near Karo Kot in the Khirthar mountain range here on Saturday evening.

Police officer Pir Allah Bachayo of the Wahi Pandhi area told Dawn that officials and engineers of the Geo-Physica, a Polish oil and gas company, were exploring oil and gas in the mountainous area, when three kilograms of dynamite exploded. The blast killed the three men on the spot.

The victims have been identified as Mohammad Asif, son of Gulab Khan; Naseer Ahmed, son of Nazeer Ahmed; and Mohammad Saqib, son of Abdul Rehman, all residents of Attock.

The police officer said that the bodies of the labourers had been brought to the Johi taluka hospital and these would soon be sent to their villages.

He said further investigation into the accident was under way.

The base manger of the camp of Geo-Physica company, Mr Shahid, said that it was not a terrorist act but an accident.
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Saturday, March 03, 2007

Polish priest exposes betrayal by his peers

Eighteen months ago, the Rev. Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski heard a startling report on the radio.

Communist-era files thought to have been destroyed years ago had in fact been preserved, the report said. They chronicled obsessive efforts by the SB, the regime's despised security police, to intimidate or compromise Roman Catholic clergy who were lending moral support to the Solidarity trade union movement.

One of the thickest files, according to the radio report, was Zaleski's.

Four days later, the priest went to the Institute of National Remembrance and asked to see his file. It was 500 pages long and included a videotape of a 1985 torture session during which a gang of SB goons used cigarettes to tattoo a Solidarity "V" on Zaleski's chest. The SB apparently used the tape as a training tool.

Despite warnings from the church to let the matter rest, Zaleski continued to dig into the files. The result is a book published Feb. 26 that identifies 39 clergymen in the Krakow archdiocese, including five bishops, who were SB informants or collaborators.

The anticipated embarrassment of these revelations, along with last month's stunning resignation of Warsaw's newly appointed archbishop after he was exposed as an SB collaborator, have plunged the Polish church into crisis and threatens to tarnish its once-pristine moral authority.

For Zaleski, the most painful part was not the video of his assault but discovering the identity of people who provided the SB with information about him.

"Two priests and many ordinary people. I was absolutely and completely surprised. I had no suspicion that there would be anything like this," said the 50-year-old priest.

Explaining his controversial undertaking in an interview, the strain of the past few months showed in Zaleski's eyes. A camera crew from Polish television was waiting in the next room. A sense of unfolding drama was palpable.

Zaleski, speaking in a soft, measured voice, explained how he sought the advice of his superiors after discovering the betrayal by fellow priests.

"They told me that my files were not of interest to anyone. They said I should burn them," he said.

Zaleski thought this would be a mistake. He wrote to Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the longtime private secretary to Pope John Paul II who had recently become archbishop of Krakow, asking him what to do. His first letter was ignored. He wrote again. This time Dziwisz advised the priest that he should trust his worries to the Virgin Mary.

But pressure was building. A new conservative government with close ties to the church was about to take power after campaigning on a promise to open the SB files and punish the former agents and their collaborators.

The Catholic hierarchy in Poland was not particularly concerned by that development. The church rightly views itself as one of the heroes in the struggle against communism. Church leaders knew that a few priests probably served as informants or collaborators, but they also believed -- mistakenly, it would turn out -- that the SB had burned the files relating to the church.

At a meeting of former Solidarity activists, Zaleski suggested that the church undertake a thorough investigation of its activities during the communist era and publish the findings.

"The devil is to hide the truth. This was the mistake of the church in the pedophilia scandal in Ireland and the United States," he said. The church responded to Zaleski's suggestion with fury, publishing an open letter criticizing the priest.

At that point Zaleski decided to pursue the investigation on his own and to publish his findings.

Of the 39 clerics contacted by Zaleski, four admitted their cooperation with the SB; the rest either denied it or made no reply. One of the five bishops he contacted provided documentation disputing the evidence against him, while the other three have remained silent. The fifth bishop is dead.

The Rev. Robert Necek, a spokesman for the Krakow archdiocese, declined to comment on the matter, adding that he had "no opinion" on a book he had not seen.

Zaleski's findings in the Krakow archdiocese are consistent with the estimates of historians who say that 10 to 15 percent of the church's priests in Poland served as informants.

"It's not that much when you consider that the entire system was organized against the church," Zaleski said. "Every priest was targeted by the SB. Every priest had a file. The fact that 85 percent refused to be compromised -- that should be called a success."
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Friday, March 02, 2007

Polish Farmers Protest Against Former Leader, Threaten Blockade

Hundreds of Polish farmers protested in Warsaw today, threatening blockades across the country unless the government acts to stop the industry sliding into bankruptcy.

Blowing sirens and whistles, farmers challenged their former vanguard, Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper, who they now blame for failing to stem a decline in pork prices. Lepper is a former pig farmer who became the firebrand leader of the agrarian-based Self Defense party, now part of Poland's governing coalition.

``It's the worst government we have had since the end of communism in 1989, especially because Lepper used to be one of us and now he is failing to keep his promises,'' said Romuald Brzykcy, a farmer from a small village in eastern Poland, who came to Warsaw to join the demonstration at parliament.

Today's protests coincided with renewed threats from Lepper that he would leave the government if it doesn't step up efforts to stabilize the pork market and lower tax on biofuels. Agriculture accounts for about 16 percent of all Polish employment, though only 4 percent of the country's economy, based on estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Lepper, 52, defended himself by saying his ministry has given 300 million zloty ($101.2 million) to boost state reserves of pork. He said his government colleagues had been slow to purchase the meat and help boost the price.

``Nobody else gave any money,'' Lepper said at a press conference today. ``But the purchases are carried out by an agency supervised by the Economy Ministry and I cannot do anything about the pace at which it acts.''

Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak, appointed to the post by the coalition leader, the Law & Justice party, rebuffed the charges that pork purchases weren't quick enough.

Ready to Join

Lepper, already embroiled in a sex scandal while his party has battled corruption allegations, said yesterday he was ready to lead farmer protests like he did in late 1990s. Back then, his party blocked roads and spilt grain on railways to half freight.

The protesters today in Warsaw waved banners that said ``Lepper must go.'' They mimicked calls by Lepper himself for the ouster of former Finance Minister and central bank Governor Leszek Balcerowicz, whose economic reforms the past 18 years Self Defense said led to hardship in the country.

``We are full to the brim of this talk about his leaving the coalition,'' said Henryk Paszkiewicz, another protesting farmer. ``It's high time the government took steps to improve the situation in agriculture. Pork prices go down dramatically and now the pigs are eating all subsidies I got from the European Union.''

The protesters filed a petition to Parliament Speaker Marek Jurek, threatening road blockades should the government fail to help pork prices rebound to around 3.90 zlotys, or 1 euro, per kilogram from the current 2.90 to 3.10 euros.

They also demanded compensation for losses due to falling prices and the removal of the ban on meat imports from Russia.
Link

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Polish Farmers Protest Against Former Leader, Threaten Blockade

Hundreds of Polish farmers protested in Warsaw today, threatening blockades across the country unless the government acts to stop the industry sliding into bankruptcy.

Blowing sirens and whistles, farmers challenged their former vanguard, Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper, who they now blame for failing to stem a decline in pork prices. Lepper is a former pig farmer who became the firebrand leader of the agrarian-based Self Defense party, now part of Poland's governing coalition.

``It's the worst government we have had since the end of communism in 1989, especially because Lepper used to be one of us and now he is failing to keep his promises,'' said Romuald Brzykcy, a farmer from a small village in eastern Poland, who came to Warsaw to join the demonstration at parliament.

Today's protests coincided with renewed threats from Lepper that he would leave the government if it doesn't step up efforts to stabilize the pork market and lower tax on biofuels. Agriculture accounts for about 16 percent of all Polish employment, though only 4 percent of the country's economy, based on estimates by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Lepper, 52, defended himself by saying his ministry has given 300 million zloty ($101.2 million) to boost state reserves of pork. He said his government colleagues had been slow to purchase the meat and help boost the price.

``Nobody else gave any money,'' Lepper said at a press conference today. ``But the purchases are carried out by an agency supervised by the Economy Ministry and I cannot do anything about the pace at which it acts.''

Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak, appointed to the post by the coalition leader, the Law & Justice party, rebuffed the charges that pork purchases weren't quick enough.

Ready to Join

Lepper, already embroiled in a sex scandal while his party has battled corruption allegations, said yesterday he was ready to lead farmer protests like he did in late 1990s. Back then, his party blocked roads and spilt grain on railways to half freight.

The protesters today in Warsaw waved banners that said ``Lepper must go.'' They mimicked calls by Lepper himself for the ouster of former Finance Minister and central bank Governor Leszek Balcerowicz, whose economic reforms the past 18 years Self Defense said led to hardship in the country.

``We are full to the brim of this talk about his leaving the coalition,'' said Henryk Paszkiewicz, another protesting farmer. ``It's high time the government took steps to improve the situation in agriculture. Pork prices go down dramatically and now the pigs are eating all subsidies I got from the European Union.''

The protesters filed a petition to Parliament Speaker Marek Jurek, threatening road blockades should the government fail to help pork prices rebound to around 3.90 zlotys, or 1 euro, per kilogram from the current 2.90 to 3.10 euros.

They also demanded compensation for losses due to falling prices and the removal of the ban on meat imports from Russia.
Link