PiS President Jarosław Kaczynski is scheduled to appear at the prosecutor's office on Wednesday and testify as a witness in a trial about a letter he wrote to then-Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobrow in 2019 about the Justice Fund.
A week ago, the spokesman of the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office, Piotr Skiba, informed about the summoning of PiS president Jarosław Kaczynski as a witness for interrogation.
The trial is not related to the main investigation of the Fund of Justice, which is conducted by investigative group No. 4 of the National Prosecutor's Office, which suspects, among others: former deputy heads of the Ministry of Justice Marcin Romanovsky and Michal Vos, as well as F. Michal O. and former employees of the Ministry of Justice.
The investigation in the Warsaw district prosecutor's office, – noted its representative, – was started due to the disclosure of information about Kaczynski's letter to Ziob.
READ ALSO: The prosecutor's office summoned Kaczynski. It is about Ziob's letter
– Our prosecutor's office received information about the possibility of committing a crime, and among other things, one of the persons the prosecutor wants to interrogate is the president of PiS, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, – said prosecutor Skiba.
Jaroslav Kaczynski Rafal Guz/PAP/EPA
Kaczynski's letter to Ziobro
In early July, Gazeta Wyborcza reported that ahead of the 2019 elections, Kaczynski asked then-Justice Minister Attorney General Zbigniew Ziob to “immediately ban Solidarna Polska candidates from using the Justice Fund for election campaigns.” “
According to the newspaper, the letter proves that Ziobro was fully aware that campaign financing from the fund was illegal, and that Kaczynski “heard about the abuses already in 2019, but limited himself to sending the letter.”
This letter was found from the former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice, Marcin Romanovsky, who was in charge of the money management of the Justice Fund. In March, his apartment was searched by the staff of the National Security Agency at the request of the National Prosecutor's Office.
READ ALSO: Kaczynski's letter from Ziobro was revealed. Wojcik: Nothing extraordinary. There were not hundreds, but thousands of such letters
Zbigniew ZiobroPAP/Pavel Supernak
Kaczynski wrote in the letter: “I am asking the minister to immediately prohibit Solidarna Polska candidates from using the justice fund during the election campaign, and at the same time, the person who is responsible for managing the funds of the fund during the campaign election or to prohibit the transfer of any funds. preparation of obligations for the transfer of these funds in the future”.
“I would like to draw the minister's attention to the fact that the cases that are already being talked about in coalition circles, if true, can have disastrous consequences both in terms of the course of the campaign and the reasons related to its resolution. “I have to state that if you do not implement the recommendations contained in the letter, full political responsibility and possibly in other aspects will be on your shoulders,” wrote “Gazeta”. “Vayborcha”.
Ziobro did not respond to the letter of the prime minister's office
The head of the Ministry of Justice, Adam Bodnar, announced on July 10 that the Supreme Audit Office, which found violations in the use of funds of this fund, notified Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, PiS President and Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczynski. , as well as the head of SBA Andrzej Strozny.
“In 2022, the Prime Minister's Office sent a request to 8 ministers of the then government for information on the implementation of 16 requests after the audits of the Supreme Audit Office, which were prepared in 2019-2021. It also included a request to the minister Zbigniew Ziob. inform about the status of the implementation of the proposals of the higher control bodies in the ministry, – said Bodnar.
“The Prime Minister's Office asked Zbigniew Ziobrow in writing whether the Ministry of Justice had initiated legislative work as a result of the post-audit comments on the Justice Fund. The Prime Minister's Office never received an answer. Zbigniew Ziobrow was the only minister in Mateusz. The Morawiecki government, which The Prime Minister did not respond to the chancellor's letter, he added.
Main photo credit: Rafal Goose/PAP/EPA
