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Arms dealer pleads guilty in Polish terror plot probe

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 22.11.2012 12:29
A 42-year-old man is pleading guilty to arms dealing and illegal possession of weapons in connection with the investigation into a plot to blow up Poland's parliament.

Prosecutor
Prosecutor Piotr Kosmaty on Thursday: photo - PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk

“The suspect made his wide-ranging, several hours long confession on Wednesday, running late into the night,” revealed Prosecutor Piotr Kosmaty, spokesman for the Appellate Prosecutor's Office in Krakow at a press conference on Thursday morning.

Maciej O. (full name withheld under Polish privacy laws) has been released on a bail of 10,000 zloty (2430 euro), but he remains under police supervision and has been banned from leaving the country.

A second man, 25-year-old Artur K. is also under police supervision, having been charged with the possession of illegal firearms. However, Prosecutor Kosmaty did not reveal whether the suspect is pleading guilty.

The main suspect remains Dr. Brunon K., a 45-year-old employee of the Krakow Agricultural University.

Prosecutors have declared that the Krakow academic believed that “the situation in the country was going in the wrong direction because all leading governmental positions were occupied by 'foreigners',” as quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Four other men have been interviewed as witnesses, and it is understood that these were undercover operatives of Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW).

Poland's parliament wide open to attack?

Meanwhile, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily has gained access to a governmental report from 2010 that concludes that Poland's parliamentary buildings were highly vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

The report, which was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior, concluded that the front of Poland's lower house of parliament (Sejm) had no protection, and only half of the entrances to parliament were properly equipped.

Although the report revealed that Poland's parliamentary complex was one of the worst protected in the world, none of the report's recommendations have been taken up to date, the paper claims.

Brunon K. allegedly planned to ram a vehicle carrying four tonnes of explosives into the lower house of parliament. Prosecutors claim that he aimed to strike when both the president and the prime minister were present. (nh)


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