2024-01-18 04:40:03
WARSAW (AP) — A deputy foreign minister in Poland’s previous government appeared before prosecutors Wednesday to hear charges related to allegedly selling visas and work permits to migrants for thousands of dollars, anti-corruption officials said.
The visa sales scandal came to light in the middle of last year and undermined the tough immigration stances of the conservative Law and Justice Party government, which lost power in October parliamentary elections. An investigation was opened last year.
The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau said in a statement on Wednesday that it had detained the former deputy foreign minister, who had been in charge of consular affairs and was only identified as Piotr W., in accordance with Polish privacy laws.
The suspect was transferred to the city of Lubin, where the prosecutor’s office charged him with exceeding his authority in handling official documents, influencing the issuance of Polish visas and sharing confidential information with unauthorized persons between 2022 and 2023.
If convicted at trial, the defendant might face up to 10 years in prison.
The national prosecutor’s office later noted that the defendant reiterated his innocence and refused to testify.
He was released following paying bail. Eight other people have been charged in connection with the case, the anti-corruption office said.
In August, the Polish press reported allegations that since 2021 the country’s consular sections have issued some 250,000 visas to migrants from Asia and Africa in exchange for bribes. The deputy foreign minister was fired from office around that time and the press linked him to the scandal.
The accused has denied having committed anything illegal.
Last week, two ministers from the previous Law and Justice government – former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński, and his subordinate Maciej Wąsik – were arrested and jailed following a court found them guilty of abuse of authority.
Law and Justice, and its ally, President Andrzej Duda, have spoken out once morest the imprisonment.
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