MP Karol Karski - drunken golf cart driver?

Two MPs from the opposition Law and Justice party have been fined by a court in Cyprus for damaging property and being drunk in charge of golf carts.

The court punished Law and Justice’s Karol Karski and Lukasz Zbonikowski with a 11,500-euro fine.

The MPs deny the charges and any knowledge of the court case.

Karski and Zbonikowski went to Cyprus in November 2008 to represent the Polish parliament during a meeting of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

According to Cypriot police, the drunk MPs seized two golf carts from the hotel and organized a cart race. As a result one cart crashed into a wall and another got stuck on a breakwater by the sea.

“A rock was placed on the accelerator pedal which suggests that the perpetrator wanted the cart to crash into the breakwater or fall into the sea,” said the police report.

The golf carts cost 10,000 euro plus 140 euro VAT, according to a letter sent to the Polish embassy in Cyprus.

Both MPs denied the allegations and reportedly refused to give evidence claiming parliamentary immunity, according to the TVN 24 news station.

Karski and Zbonikowski both say that they had no knowledge of the court proceedings and will be appealing the verdict.

Meanwhile Law and Justice MP Mariusz Kamiński says he believes  his party colleagues had not been drunk nor had they crashed any golf carts, and that the charges are a way of “extorting money”.

“Trust is a fundament in politics and I believe my colleagues,” he said. (mg/ek/pg)