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Polish opposition senator suspected of corruption

PR dla Zagranicy
Grzegorz Siwicki 22.12.2017 15:57
Prosecutors in Poland want an opposition senator stripped of parliamentary immunity amid suspicions he was bribed to influence the outcome of an army tender.
Senator Maciej Grubski, pictured in 2011. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell Senator Maciej Grubski, pictured in 2011. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

The National Public Prosecutor's Office said on Friday it had asked the Speaker of the country’s upper house of parliament to launch proceedings to waive the immunity of Maciej Grubski, a senator for the opposition Civic Platform (PO) party.

The prosecutor's office said it aimed to press a total of four charges against the senator.

Prosecutors suspect Grubski of attempting to influence the outcome of an army tender and of understating his assets in three property statements that he submitted in 2011-2012, the National Public Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

According to prosecutors, Grubski disclosed secret information to a businessman friend about the PLN 22 million tender for equipment for the Polish Army’s special forces.

An investigation in the case has been ongoing since December 2013.

Investigators suspect that Grubski accepted a PLN 91,000 bribe in connection with his role as a senator and deputy chairman of the Senate National Defence Committee at the time, Poland’s PAP news agency reported.

The three other charges that prosecutors want to press against Grubski involve him allegedly understating the value of his assets by more than PLN 105,000 in his property statements, according to PAP.

The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) is probing the alleged irregularities in Grubski’s property statements, PAP also said.

According to public broadcaster TVP, Grubski has said he is not guilty of any of the allegations.

Under the Polish constitution, the country’s senators and deputies enjoy parliamentary immunity and cannot be held criminally liable without the consent of their houses.

In another bribery probe in Poland, prosecutors were on Thursday planning to charge Stanisław Gawłowski, an MP for the PO party, with corruption on three counts, in addition to two other charges of revealing a state secret and plagiarism, according to the TVP Info news channel.

Meanwhile, Stanisław Kogut, a senator for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, has renounced his parliamentary immunity amid suspicions of corruption in connection with an alleged influence-peddling case in the southern city of Kraków.

Both Gawłowski and Kogut have denied the allegations.

(gs/pk)

Source: PAP, TVP

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