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'Serious terrorist attack' foiled in Poland, say prosecutors

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 20.11.2012 10:30
UPDATED - Prosecutors have confirmed that an employee at Krakow Agricultural University has been arrested for allegedly planning a “very serious” terrorist attack against the state in Poland.

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From left to right: Prosecutors Mariusz Krasoń, Artur Wrona and Piotr Kosmaty during a press conference at the Internal Security Agency in Warsaw, Tuesday morning: photo - PAP/Rafał Guz

At a press conference on Tuesday morning prosecutors said that the man claimed to be a member of a nationalist group and was aiming to attack members of the government and state.

“A suspect in a planned terrorist attack on constitutional authorities of Poland was arrested on 9 November,” said Mariusz Krason from the Appellate Prosecutor's Office.

According to prosecutors, the suspect is a Polish citizen and does not belong to any political party.

He is a 45-year-old research fellow at the Agricultural University in Krakow, who deals with explosive materials.

Four other people connected with him have been questioned.

The suspect “had entered into an agreement with other people and had tried to organise an armed group.”

Several sites across Poland had been searched as a result of the investigation launched on 5 November.

“As a result of the searches, 4 tons of explosive materials were found, including TNT, plus fuses with a mobile phone attached, wires and detonators.

A bullet proof vest and car license plates were also found, prosecutors said.

“The threat of an attack on Polish authorities was real,” added prosecutor Artur Wrona.

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Prosecutors released photos and video of test explosions that the suspect is alleged to have carried out, showing a large explosion in a wooded area.

The man carried out the explosions at various sites, including at Przegrinia in the southern Malopolska region.

The last test explosion was carried out in September this year.

“ Simply put, the man feels that the social and economic situation in the country is going in the wrong direction and virtually all government positions are being occupied by people which he described as ‘foreigners’,” Prosectutor Mariusz Krasoń said.

The suspect, described as a an anti-semite, was detained in the southern city of Krakow in the lead-up to the Independence Day marches in Warsaw on 11 November.

The middle-aged man had been under surveillance for a number of weeks.

He was allegedly engaged in the construction of explosive devices, and had made a number of reconnaissance trips to Warsaw.

While in the capital, he is understood to have studied the area around Poland's parliament, as well as the route marked out for President Bronislaw Komorowski's Independence Day march.

"This information is certainly very worrying,” Rafał Grupiński, chairman of the ruling Civic Platform's parliamentary party told Polish Radio, showing that there were "tensions" in Poland.

Security expert Piotr Niemczyk told Polish Radio that this is the first time since the fall of communism that a suspected assassination on a member, or members, of the Polish state has been attempted.

On 18 October 2010, a party worker for the Law and Justice (PiS) opposition party however was murdered when a 62 year-old burst into the PiS offices in the central city of Lodz and shot the man dead and also stabbed another, who survived.

The last Polish president to be assassinated was Gabriel Narutowicz, who was murdered in October 1922 by painter Eligiusz Niewiadomski, who had connections with the right wing National Democratic Party. (pg/nh)

uodated 11.34

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President of Poland knew about planned terrorist attack, thenews.pl, 20 Nov

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