Janusz Kaczmarek, former minister of interior and administration – along with former police chief Konrad Kornatowski - was arrested by the Internal Security Agency (ABW) on Thursday morning. The ex-minister is likely to be charged with an attempt to hinder the investigation of the information leak during the Anti-Corruption Bureau’s investigation into corruption in the agriculture ministry, Wojciech Brochwicz, a spokesman for Kaczmarek, said this morning.

The head of the state national insurance giant, PZU, Jaromir Netzel, has also been detained.

The security agency arrested Kaczmarek between 6 and 7 a.m. on Thursday morning and the former interior minister has confirmed the arrest by telephone to reporters.

Konrad Kornatowski, former head of police, was also arrested in his flat in Gdynia. The District Prosecutor’s Office has so far refused to disclose any information.

Konrad Kornatowski was to be interrogated by the special parliamentary committee looking into the circumstances of the leak to the Anti-Corruption Bureau this morning.

Janusz Kaczmarek was originally accused of tipping off head of the Self defence party, and the then agricultural minister, Andrzej Lepper, that the Anti-Corruption Bureau were going to try and entrap him into illegal practices over changing the status of a piece of land, which would greatly increase its value.

Lepper was subsequently sacked from his position in the cabinet and as vice premier.

Lepper amd Kaczmarek have gone on to claim that it was, in fact, Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro who tipped off the former interior minister about the sting operation.

Since then, accusations have and allegations from both sides have become increasingly bitter, with Kaczmarek claiming that Ziobro has been using the secret services to spy on people for political ends.

Ziobro denies the allegations, claiming that Kaczmarek – despite being from the same, post-Solidarity Law and Justice party as himself – is the head of an informal post-communist and liberal cartel, which has been running Poland since the break up of Poland in 1989. (photo: Jakub Szymczuk))

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