Posted on 01/07/2007 11:35:34 AM PST by lizol
Businessman accused of offering cash for Polish official's murder was U.S. campaign donor
By MIKE ROBINSON, The Associated Press
Jan 7, 2007 1:00 PM
CHICAGO - A businessman charged with offering $40,000 for the murder of a top Polish police official has been a steady contributor to U.S. candidates and political committees, campaign finance records show.
Millionaire Edward A. Mazur, who holds dual U.S. and Polish citizenship, has donated to candidates as varied as President Bush and Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich over the past six years. He was arrested in October at his suburban Chicago home on Polish charges that he offered money for the murder of Marek Papala, former commander general of the Warsaw department of police.
Papala was gunned down in 1998 and the hunt for his killer has been going on ever since.
Defense attorney Chris Gair, who is fighting to save Mazur, 60, from being extradited to Poland, says his client's campaign contributions merely reflect his desire to participate in the political process.
"Mr. Mazur has exercised his rights as an American citizen to support candidates of his choice and he's grateful that his U.S. citizenship gives him that opportunity," Gair said.
There is no indication that the candidates and committees that got the money were aware of Mazur's legal troubles in his native Poland. Although initially questioned by Polish officials in the case, he was allowed to return to the United States and has headed several small businesses in Illinois over the past several years.
Most of the money went to Republicans, although the Democratic governor's committee, Friends of Rod Blagojevich, received $1,000 in November 2001 and $500 in July 2003, state records show.
Blagojevich's Republican challenger in last fall's election, Judy Baar Topinka, got $12,125 from Mazur between June 2001 and November 2005.
Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. received from $1,800 Mazur in September 2003, according to Federal Elections Commission records. He has also donated to various GOP national committees.
Officials for the campaigns that received money from Mazur either declined comment or did not return calls from The Associated Press.
The contributions cast an interesting sidelight on a drama that opened with the July 1998 murder of Papala, whose former post was similar to that of a national police chief.
He was killed by a single bullet to the head as he emerged from his car in front of his Warsaw home.
Court papers based on Poland's request for extradition suggest that the Polish mob and international drug traffickers may have been involved in a plot to kill the police official.
A warrant issued by a Polish court in February charged that Mazur offered $40,000 to an Artur Zirajewski at a meeting in a Gdansk hotel to kill Papala. Polish documents said Mazur also offered money to another man, Andrzej Zielinski.
The documents said that both Zirajewski and Zielinski were among four men who have given accounts of the case to Polish investigators.
In addition to the donations to Blagojevich and Bush, records show that Mazur gave the Illinois Republican Party $1,450, the Republican National Committee $3,620, the National Republican Congressional Committee $3,200 and the National Republican Senatorial Committee $23,940 in 30 separate contributions between May 2000 and May 2004.
The President's Dinner Committee, an offshoot of the Republican National Committee, received $2,750. Citizens for Jim Ryan, a former Illinois attorney general and Republican candidate for governor in 2002, received $7,000, according to state records.
"We don't know anything about this and have no comment," said John Hoffman, a spokesman for Topinka, the outgoing state treasurer and Republican Party chairman.
Sheila Nix, a former Blagojevich campaign spokeswoman, said that the governor and his staff had no knowledge of Mazur's legal issues.
White House spokesman Alex Conant referred questions to the Republican National Committee. RNC spokeswoman Tracey Schmitt said the organization would have no comment. A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, Brian Nick, did not return three phone calls and an e-mail.
Mazur was arrested in the affluent suburb of Glenview on Oct. 20 by FBI agents, Drug Enforcement Agency agents and police. U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlander Keys has denied his requests for release on bond.
Mazur is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, a block from Chicago's federal courthouse, pending an extradition decision. An extradition hearing is set for April 9.
Ping
FWIW, the city with the second largest Polish population in the world is...
....Chicago.
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