“It was the Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, who warned me about the operation by the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) investigating the Ministry of Agriculture,” announced Andrzej Lepper at a press conference on Saturday. After returning from a stay in hospital, former vice-premier and agricultural minister Lepper said:
“On 14 July at 8pm I met with Minister Zbigniew Ziobro in my office. The meeting was concerning various criminal proceedings [including a sex scandal] conducted against Self-Defence. We talked for quite a long time. The Minister was very cordial and talked about various things.
"Then he explicitly told me to ‘look out’, because the CBA is conducting a large-scale operation at the Ministry of Agriculture, concerning the changing status of some farmland,” said Mr. Lepper.
Justice Minister Ziobro has retorted that Lepper has ‘lied’ and he was nothing to do with the tip off.
"He and [sacked interior minister] Kaczmarek are obviously working hand in hand," said Ziobro. "We know Lepper is a liar, now let's see if he is a coward."
The anti-corruption bureau was setting up a ‘sting’ operation to try and lure members of Lepper’s party into breaking the law, it is alleged.
He added that although he promised Minister Ziobro at the time not to reveal that conversation - after Interior Minister Kaczmarek was sacked this week, accused of tipping off Lepper of the sting operation - he no longer feels obliged to keep the promise.
The leaking of the anti-corruption 'sting' has obstructed legal proceedings which could be taken against members of Lepper’s party and Lepper himself.
Kaczmarek supports Lepper accusation
“Zbigniew Ziobro was behind the leaks,” the sacked interior minister, Janusz Kaczmarek, will reveal in an interview with Newsweek Polska to be published Monday.
The aim of the tip offs was, says Kaczmarek, to discredit the head of the operation, Zbigniew Wasserman.
“Minister Zbigniew Wasserman was the subject of numerous critical newspaper articles, often untrue. Some of them were inspired by Minister Ziobro,” says Kaczmarek.
In an extensive interview for the Monday edition of "Newsweek”, Mr. Kaczmarek says he will reveal the ‘sensational details of power struggles at the top.’
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