Nowak, former transport minister and former head of the Ukrainian road agency Ukrawtodor, was arrested on Wednesday by a Warsaw court for three months. On Tuesday, a former politician was charged with leading an organized crime group benefiting from corruption between October 2016 and September 2019. Nowak is suspected of demanding and accepting material and personal benefits in return for awarding private entities with contracts for the construction and repair of roads in Ukraine, as well as for money laundering. As a result of these crimes, he was to obtain PLN 1.3 million.
PO leader Borys Budka, asked on TVN24 about the arrest of a former PO politician (also a person who worked for the staff of the KO candidate Rafał Trzaskowski), said that he did not know “what was in the case” of Nowak. He added that the court would decide about the possible fault of the former minister of transport.
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At the same time, he pointed out that the charges brought against Nowak were related to the period of his work in Ukraine. – This period ended in the fall of last year, while the entire operation of the services, including the Polish services, according to media reports, continued until now, therefore it should be considered what was the real intention that this matter lasted so long and whether it is possible that this case was used to keep an eye on the Polish opposition, underlined Budka.
He confirmed that Nowak was an advisor to Trzaskowski’s staff. – Sławomir Nowak’s knowledge of how to conduct a campaign was used to some extent, but it may raise very serious doubts that the work was completed in Ukraine last fall, and according to the media, until now, until recently, Sławomir Nowak was the object of the operational works of the Polish services, therefore it may not have been about Sławomir Nowak, but about knowledge about the election campaign – said the leader of the Platform.
As he added, this may raise “very serious doubts” as to whether Nowak’s case was used “for surveillance and illegally gaining knowledge about what was happening” at Trzaskowski’s staff. – If so, we are dealing with an unimaginable scandal – assessed Budka.
He announced that the PO would demand “complete and reliable” information on whether opposition politicians had been under surveillance by the services under the pretext of the Nowak case.
The arrest for his former party friend was also commented on Wednesday evening by the former PO chief Grzegorz Schetyna in an interview with Polsat News. – This is a very serious matter, it is certainly an element of the game that we have in Ukraine between President (Volodymyr – ed.) Zelensky and the previous president (Petro – ed.) Poroshenko, so we have too little knowledge to expressly speak here in this case. Let’s wait how it develops – said Schetyna.
Former transport minister and former head of the Ukrainian road agency Ukrawtodor Sławomir Nowak was detained on Monday on suspicion of corruption, running an organized crime group and money laundering. Moreover, the businessman Jacek P. was arrested and the former commander of the “Grom” unit Dariusz ZP was also arrested by the court on Wednesday for three months; on the other hand, Z. was arrested under the conditions of conditional arrest – he would be released if he paid a PLN 1 million bail.
Nowak’s defender, attorney Antoni Kania-Sieniawski, informed after leaving the court that a complaint would be filed against the decision to temporarily arrest his client.
(kw)
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