Yesterday’s entry on Beata Sawicka’s corruption charges was a little hurried. Here, for those with strong stomachs, is the sleazy story in more detail. In January 2007 the CBA (Anti-Corruption Office) agent meets Sawicka on a training course. He poses as the representative of a western property developer. On October 1st Sawicka is arrested for accepting a bribe to rig the sale of a plot of land in Hel (northern Poland). The land was not yet for sale; there was no “plan zagospodarowania” (development plan); no tendering process had been announced and none was planned; no authentic businessmen had expressed any interest in the land. In short, the whole thing was a set-up. The mayor of Hel also got caught up in the affair: he would have known straight off what the legal status of the land in question was.

On October 15th Primesident Kaczyński complains that somehow little has been heard about the corruption of – oh, what’s this her name is? – Sawicka. (She herself had not gone public since her arrest.) Next day Kamiński of the CBA called the press conference in which he revealed the details of the investigation (bugged conversations, video of the bribe transfer). Among Sawicka’s words is mention of the possibility of cashing in on the privatisation of hospitals. PiS at this time is running ads saying (incorrectly – as has been decided in court) that PO plan to privatise the public health service, including even emergency help. Sawicka is also shown making references to corruption to a PO member (since identified as Wojciech Picheta). Picheta is booted out of PO and later says he regarded Sawicka’s words as „science fiction” which in view of the fact that the hospital up for privatisation that Sawicka mentioned is already private, may well be true. (Also, PiS has not been slow to privatise individual hospitals either.) Kamiński insists that the CBA undercover man did not enter into an intimate relationship with Sawicka: it was all strictly business. He also finds it necessary to point out during the show that this is a good indicator of who to vote for. Next day Sawicka goes public, as described below. The CBA man, she says, totally turned her head, sending her flowers and letters, exchanging presents with her….

Pitera, a party colleague, claims that Sawicka had mentioned to her her suspicion that she was being spied on by the ABW (another bunch of spooks in Poland) and asks why a woman with such suspicions would talk so openly on the telephone about corruption.

There’s more, but I have to go now, and tomorrow it is illegal to engage in electioneering. Which of course I’m not doing. Unlike the secret police.