Arrests In Poland Continue As Poland's Prime Minister Cracks Down

Poland's Solidarity Hero Lech Walesa has compared the behavior Poland's President and Prime Minister to the Polish Communist Party crackdown on Solidarity Activists in 1981, as one more was arrested and another is being hunted in matters related to what is now being referred to locally as the Polish Watergate.

Here is the article describing a very strange affair. Is it Italy or Poland ;-):

Warsaw, Poland 31 August, 2007 Poland's Solidarity Hero Lech Walesa has compared the behavior Poland's President and Prime Minister to the Polish Communist Party crackdown on Solidarity Activists in 1981, as one more was arrested and another is being hunted in matters related to what is now being referred to locally as the Polish Watergate.

Arrested was Jaromir Netzel who is the CEO of Poland's largest insurance carrier PZU. He allegedly disclosed state secrets about the entrapment scheme set up by Poland's Anti-Corruption Bureau to catch Former Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper .

Ryszard Krauze, the fifth richest man in Poland, who controls Poland's largest software company, Prokom, was not at home when agents went to arrest him. He is on a long vacation outside Poland. He is also to be charged with disclosing state secrets about the Lepper entrapment scheme.

So far the total is four people either arrested or to be arrested in the sudden Government sweep of people done the day before testimony was to be given at a Polish Parliament Secret Service Committee. Their arrests silence them as witnesses since they cannot attend the Committee session to testify. See Poland's Government Silences Witnesses In Polish Watergate Scandal

Reaction of the opposition political parties has been damning.

The arrests are, according to Professor Adam Rzeplinski, a human rights advocate, a violation of Poland's constitution. "This blocks the function of commissions and violates article 10 of the Constitution which speaks of the separation of legislative and executive powers."

Bronsilaw Komorowski of the Civic Platform said, "It is clear the government is afraid of their testimonies." "It seems the government is in panic and a government which is in panic is always a risk to democracy."

And Donal Tusk, Leader of the Civic Platform said, "This brings to mind mafia dealings, when the key witness is finished off before he manages to testify."

Former Minister of Education Roman Giertych called members of the Prime Minister's party, Law And Justice, "bandits and political gangsters" when he said, "Today, democratic standards have been transformed into a farce by a group of bandit, political gangsters. They dream of what is happening behind our eastern borders, where Lukashenko [in Belarus] imprisons his political opponents."

Former Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper, the target of the Anti-Corruption Bureau entrapment scheme, added that the current situation in Poland is worse than, "Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union."

To the President of Poland, it is just a matter of the wheels of justice moving along as the public prosecutor follows legal procedures as he conducts and investigation. He said, "I am not surprised by the detention of Kaczmarek."There is no panic. What is happening is in accordance with the law."

To the Prime Minister, the Parliamentary Secret Services Committee is a group that defends criminals. That a witness does not go before that group does not hurt Poland. Democracy exits. But according to Former President Aleksander Kwasniewski, Poland is now like Zimbabwe and Belarus.

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