A scandal shakes Poland

The newspaper "Gazeta Wyborcza" reported that a loud scandal unfolded in Poland after it was revealed that prominent politicians were involved in using the Justice Fund allocated to help victims of crime to finance their election campaigns in 2019.

According to the newspaper, in 2019, Jarosław Kaczyński, then-leader of the ruling Law and Justice party, asked then-Justice Minister and Attorney General Zbigniew Szebro, leader of the Polish Solidarity party allied with the Law and Justice party, to immediately ban Solidarity candidates from using the Justice Fund in their election campaigns.

The newspaper published an excerpt from Kaczynski's letter: "I ask you, Mr. Minister, to immediately prohibit Solidarity candidates from using the Justice Fund during the election campaign, and at the same time to prohibit the person responsible for managing the fund from transferring any sums during the election campaign or formulating commitments to transfer such sums in the future."

The publication explains that the letter addressed by Kaczynski to Zybro was found during the search in the case of abuse of the Justice Fund, where on March 26, 2024, officers from the Internal Security Agency searched the apartment of MP Marcin Romanowski, according to a search warrant from the Public Prosecutor’s Office investigating the violations. In the Justice Fund.

Between 2019 and 2023, Romanovsky, as Deputy Minister of Justice, was responsible for distributing the funds of this fund.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk commented on this, saying: “Regarding the alleged letter from PiS Chairman Jaroslaw Kaczynski, which concerns the Justice Fund, I have three questions for him: was it a real letter, was he aware of the extent of the illegal use of public funds, and was it Inform the government or the Public Prosecution in this regard?

Lawyer Roman Gertykh told reporters that he had already sent a request to the Prosecutor General's Office to open a criminal case on the illegal use of Justice Fund funds and illegal financing of the election campaign.