Confidential survey on FM Sikorski’s chances to head NATO and Poles ready accept low pay jobs.
Presented by Slawek Szefs
RZECZPOSPOLITA focuses on the Supreme Court verdict concerning foreign court rulings involving Polish citizens. The specific case under review has been a double life imprisonment sentence passed on a Pole by a British court in Exeter, which found him guilty of rape and causing bodily injury to a local woman. After the conviction a request was filed for the man to be transferred to Poland to serve the sentence. Additionally, his lawyers had been demanding the terms be changed to comply with Polish law, which envisages maximum 12 year imprisonment for such crime. The Supreme Court ruling explicitly stated that no such possibility exists in cases where Polish citizens had been extradited to a foreign country on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant and subsequently sentenced by a foreign court. The good news, if that be the proper word, is that British law provides in such cases for the possibility of applying for early parole after serving 9 years. Polish law allows life convicts for a similar request no sooner than after 25 years.
DZIENNIK tackles the issue of a considered candidature of foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski to the post of NATO Secretary General. The Alliance is to take a decision on the matter during its 60th anniversary summit at the beginning of April. The paper quotes foreign ministry sources revealing confidential instructions for major Polish diplomatic missions abroad to conduct a special inquiry regarding sentiments in a given country on potential support for Sikorski as the future NATO chief. It is already known that Germany is among countries voicing exceptional reservations to his candidature, fearing the Polish foreign minister’s personal views as excessively anti-Russian.
A job for one thousand zloty a month, roughly 220 euro? I’ll take it! That’s the frontpage headline in GAZETA WYBORCZA summing up findings of a survey commissioned by the paper among work seeking Poles. Threatened by growing unemployment triggered by the unveiling crisis situation, many express gratitude for offers they wouldn’t have even considered barely a few months ago. The hunt continues for odd jobs in shops and stores, cleaning and security agencies. Office work offers, especially in public institutions, are considered the cream of the crop. For example, an opening at a local Social Security Office drew 178 hopeful candidates…
The tabloid SUPER EXPRESS devotes an article to the exhibition opened at the European Parliament in tribute to Witold Pilecki, the Polish World War Two hero who as an underground soldier voluntarily went to Auschwitz to organize a resistance movement among the Nazi concentration camp inmates. He managed to escape from the death camp, only to take part in the Warsaw Rising of 1944. He also served as a secret courier of the London based Polish government in exile when he was captured by post-war communist services in Poland and ultimately murdered after a Stalinist type mock trial. The exhibition titled ‘Witold Pilecki , a volunteer to Auschwitz’ has been organized at the European Parliament by the National Remembrance Institute (IPN) in Warsaw. Its chairman, professor Janusz Kurtyka, said he hoped Witold Pilecki would become a symbol of anti-totalitarian struggle not only for Poles, but also for all Europeans.
FAKT prints president Lech Kaczynski’s annual tax return sheet, showing the head of state’s income and tax reliefs. However, the main figure of interest is the 1 percent tax deduction for charity envisaged by Polish law. Thus president Kaczynski strongly encourages all Poles to take advantage of this opportunity and financially support the organizations of their choice.