Janusz Kaczmarek joined a protest outside the prime minister’s office after being released from police detention Saturday, and has denied accusations of perjury, and that he obstructed the course of justice in a high profile corruption case in Poland.

New evidence released to the media, however, suggests that Kaczmarek misled an investigation into the affair.

Accused of leaking details of an investigation into the agricultural ministry, which was under an investigation over an alleged corruption land deal, Kaczmarek said:

“I am not and have never been the source of the leak.”

Kaczmarek and two others, including the ex-head of the police force Konrad Kornatowski, were detained in custody, Thursday, after being accused of tipping off former agricultural minister Andrzej Lepper about a sting operation by the Anti-Corruption Bureau, which was investigating illegal practices at the agricultural ministry.

Police are also searching for businessman Ryszard Krauze, who Kaczmarek is said to have dealings with. “I have no business deal with Krauze,” he said, standing outside the Prime Minister’s Office in Warsaw Saturday afternoon, during a protest organized by members of the League of Polish Families, a party once in the ruling coalition with the Law and Justice party and now supporting Kaczmarek’s cause.

President Lech Kaczynski dismissed Kaczmarek from the government over the affair.

Kaczynski and others in the government have since accused Kaczmarek of belonging to an informal post-communist cartel in Warsaw, which has dominated, in the government’s opinion, business and political life in Poland since the break up of the communist system in 1989.

The government believes that one of the members of this informal ‘agreement’ is one of Poland’s richest men, Ryszard Krauze, who police are currently searching for in connection with the land deal corruption case.

It is alleged that Kaczmarek and Krauze met in the Marriot Hotel in Warsaw on July 5, at the time the alleged leak took place. Kaczmarek denied meeting Krauze, though CCTV film, shown widely on Polish TV Saturday suggests that Kaczmarek did enter Krauze’s offices in the hotel.

“If I am in the [cartel] I was invited into it by Lech Kaczynski, who introduced me to Mr. Krauze. So where is the cartel?,” said Kaczmarek to reporters outside the PM’s office.

Kaczmarek - up until recently a prominent member of the Kaczynski administration - said that the real cartel was in the government.

“I have been stuck inside a sick [cartel] because I was fascinated by Lech Kaczyński. I was loyal to him,” said the former interior minister.

Kaczmarek angrily challenged the circumstances of his police detention and said his lawyer had complained officially about its execution. He also suggested that the detentions, Thursday, were an attempt to gag himself and others.

“There was no reason to detain me as each time the prosecution services call me, I come. My detention is strictly connected with [former police chief] Konrad Kornatowski visit to the parliamentary commission [on Thursday], where he was about to give evidence about abnormal activities of prosecution, police and secret services.”

Kaczmarek, along with Kornatowski and the former head of the PZU national insurer, Jasomir Netzel, were released from detention after securing bail, which in the former interior minister’s case was set at 100,000 zloty.

The three have also had their passports confiscated.

Police are still looking for Ryszard Krauze, who is believed to have left the country. Though no official statement has been made by the businessman, it nis believed he told people in Warsaw that he does not intend to return to Poland.

The corruption case has led to the break up of the ruling coalition and new elections in Poland will probably take place this autumn. (photo: Jakub Szymczuk)

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