Prosecutor moments before suicide attempt: photo - PAP/MarekZakrzewski
“I put the gun into my mouth,” the prosecutor in charge of investigating the causes of the April 2010 Smolensk air disaster is quoted by the PAP news agency.
Deputy Chief Military Prosecutior Mikolaj Przybyl is currently in hospital having reconstruction surgery to his jaw and cheek after failing to kill himself during a five minute break in the press conference, when he cleared the room of journalists.
Przybyl’s life was saved by chance, he says, as just as he was about to pull the trigger on his pistol, a technician started to move cables from outside the room. This distracted the prosecutor and the bullet pierced his cheek instead of killing him.
Col. Przybyl said that he has been under intense pressure recently and had received death threats to himself and his family, in what is his first statement since the suicide attempt.
His family dog had been killed by someone who wanted to harm his family, he said.
He added that he also believed that someone has paid "one million zloty" to have him killed.
An investigation he was running into alleged financial corruption within the armed forces was also a source of stress, he said.
‘Crisis of justice’
Meanwhile, leader of the Law and Justice party (PiS), Jaroslaw Kaczynski has said that Poland faces a “crisis of justice” following the attempted suicide of a military prosecutor during a press conference, Monday.
"We have […] a very serious crisis in the judiciary, the situation is really unprecedented, with open conflict among [civilian and military] prosecutors,” Kaczynski said and called on Prime Minister Donald Tusk to return from winter holiday immediately.
Kaczynski’s statement comes after a military prosecutor shot himself in the head during a break in a press conference in Poznan, western Poland yesterday.
Colonel Mikolaj Przybyl warned journalists immediately before trying to kiill himself against plans for the military prosecution service to be subsumed into the civilian prosecution following different investigations into the Smolensk air disaster in April 2010.
A conflict between the two wings of the prosecution service has been thought to be behind delays into the causes of the Smolensk disaster which killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 others.
It is being alleged that the military prosecution services demanded that journalists hand over mobile phone data so as to ascertain the source of leaks about the causes of the Smolensk disaster. It is claimed the military did this behind the back of civilian prosecutors.
On Tuesday, President Bronislaw Komorowski met with Attorney General to discuss the conflict. (pg)