Eight detained in wake of Warsaw restitution scandal
PR dla Zagranicy
Roberto Galea
11.05.2017 12:18
Polish police have detained eight people, including three lawyers, in connection with an investigation into a real-estate restitution scandal in Warsaw.
Bild: cba.gov.pl
Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said on Thursday that one of the people detained is a “very well-known lawyer”.
He said that the eight people detained are being interviewed by police and their properties were being searched.
He estimated related losses were worth PLN 50 million (EUR 11.85 mln).
Amid media allegations of a massive web of corruption involving Warsaw officials, mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz last year announced that City Hall was firing three staff over the restitution of a prime plot of land in the centre of the capital.
Prosecutors are working on some 150 cases in relation to the scandal, Ziobro said.
On Thursday he announced that deputy Justice Minister Patryk Jaki would head a new inquiry into the scandal.
The commission will be able to revoke restitution decisions and decide that owners can be stripped of unlawfully obtained property.
The origins of the scandal date back to the seizure of property under the October 1945 Bierut Decree, named after former Polish communist leader Bolesław Bierut, which legalised the confiscation of private land in the capital.
Thousands of private buildings were taken from their owners. After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 it has been possible to submit claims for the return of such confiscated property. (rg/vb)