Police detain businessman in 'Tape Affair' scandal

photo - pol.gov.pl

Marek F. (surname withheld due to Poland's privacy laws) was detained by police and officers from the Internal security agency (ABW) on Tuesday morning, both TVN 24 and the gazeta.pl web site are reporting.

Marek F. a 40 percent shareholder in 'Składy Węgla', a coal distribution company, is the second man to be detained in connection with the so-called 'tape affair', where secretly made recordings of Poland's top politicians and business people have been leaked to the magazine Wprost.

Last week the manager of a restaurant in Warsaw was also detained in connection with Poland's biggest political scandal in years.

State prosecutors have yet to confirm the detention of Marek F.

Meanwhile, Jan Bury, a spokesman for the junior coalition partner PSL told journalists after a meeting between Prime Minister Donald Tusk and politicians from the senior partner Civic Platform and PSL that the government will give itself “till the end of the summer" to concentrate on getting to the bottom of who has been taping ministers and officials in some of Warsaw's top restaurants.

Rafal Grupiński, head of Civic Platform's parliamentary caucus, said that the meeting lasted around one hour and “Prime Minister Tusk presented an assessment of the situation and its possible consequences.”

Opposition parties have called for a vote of no confidence in the ruling Civic Platform after tapes revealed possible political collusion between a minister and head of the central bank Marek Belka, and embarrassing comments made by foreign minister Radek Sikorski and former finance minister Jacek Rostowski, where the head of Poland's diplomacy was heard on the tapes saying that the “US-Polish alliance is worthless”. (pg)

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Tape Affair Scandal