Diplomat recalled after 'drunken' video appears on internet
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
31.12.2011 10:48
A Polish diplomat, shown in a video allegedly drunk in a Belarusian restaurant, has been recalled from his post at the Polish Embassy in Minsk.
Screen capture, Youtube
A description that accompanies
the video on Youtube claims the diplomat, Witold Misiak, was so drunk that he lost classified Foreign Ministry documents and a special phone for voice encrypted communications.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki has told Polish Radio that the incident has received the immediate attention of Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, who decided to recall Misiak, who has already arrived back in Warsaw.
Bosacki added the Foreign Ministry has launched an inquiry into the case but denied that any sensitive documents or phones had been lost.
The emergence of the video and accompanying allegations come as Polish-Belarusian relations soured still further this year, following the verdict of a court in Minsk which sentenced former presidential candidate and Belarusian human rights campaigner Ales Bialatski to four and a half years in a hard labour camp.
Bialatski received strong support from the Polish government and his imprisonment also brought protest from the EU. (ss/pg)
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