Andrzej Lepper; photo - PR

Following a false start last month, when one of the defendants was absent owing to ill health, the notorious sex abuse appeal trial involving former Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper is back in court.

Andrzej Lepper, the leader of the controversial Self Defence party, was convicted along with fellow MP Stanislaw Lyzwinski, in February 2010.

The affair initially came to light in December 2006, after a former employee, Aneta Krawczyk, told the Gazeta Wyborcza daily that she had been given a job in the party's Lodz office in return for sexual favours provided to Lyzwinski and Lepper.

Although DNA tests later proved that Aneta Krawczyk's child was not the offspring of either of the two men, other women came forward to testify against the pair. Lepper was sentenced to two years and three months behind bars. Lyzwinski received a lengthier term of five years, after the court found him guilty of rape, together with other charges of sexually exploiting female activists.

After Lyzwinski failed to attend last month's hearing, the court tried to continue in his absence. However, prosecutors claimed that the two men had cooperated in their alleged crimes, and thus it was essential that both men were tried together.

Mr Lyzwinski wants to be present in court, both men claiming they are victims of slander.

“Let this case finally finish,” Lepper told journalists outside the court last month, “I want to relieve my family of the burden.”

Lepper - political outcast?

From the outset of his political career, populist Andrzej Lepper has often been derided by members of the intelligentsia as 'niekulturalny' (uncultured).

However, he won considerable support, owing to his sharp mind, plain-talking, assertive actions and populist policies. He grabbed headlines in the late nineties championing the plight of low income farmers, carrying out controversial media stunts such as roadblocks on imported grain.

The current case is one of his many brushes with the law.

He enjoyed an unexpected spell in government in 2006, when coalition talks broke down between the conservative Law and Justice party and the more centrist Civic Platform.

Lepper's Self Defence party was one of the groups invited to fill the gap by the Kaczynski brothers. Lepper himself became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Agriculture. He was sacked the same year, and following a brief reinstatement in the cabinet, his career was thrown into disarray by the sex scandal. (nh/pg)

Source: PAP, TVP