The Senate regulatory committee on Tuesday recommended rejecting the prosecution’s motion to waive Senate Marshal Tomasz Grodzki’s immunity.
7 senators were in favor of the negative opinion, 5 were against and no one abstained.
It was predictable – the Senate Rules Committee recommends the rejection of the motion to waive the immunity of Senate President T. Grodzki. #DoctrineNeumanna works!
– wrote Deputy Marshal Marek Pęk.
“Black clouds are gathering more and more”
Marshal’s haughty answer: I’m not afraid. If the application is written correctly, I will refer it to the committee
The Senate presidium will decide the issue of the Senate Marshal’s immunity at its next session, which begins Wednesday.
The waiver of Marshal Grodzki’s immunity is being demanded by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin, which filed another motion in the case last December. According to the prosecutor’s office, Grodzki, as director of a specialized hospital in Szczecin and head of the local Department of Thoracic Surgery, accepted wealth payments from patients or their relatives.
Grodzki, a medical science professor and surgeon, has repeatedly assured that the corruption charges leveled against him are unfounded.
I have never made surgery dependent on paying me a bribe
– said Grodzki in December 2019, when the first reports on this topic appeared in Radio Szczecin.
In late October last year, the Senate Information Center said the Senate would not consider the prosecutor’s earlier motion, filed in March 2021, to waive Grodzki’s immunity. Deputy Marshal Bogdan Borusewicz (KO) informed investigators that he had decided to leave the motion unceremoniously because it had not been amended, as previously requested by the Senate.
Request from the Attorney General
In December last year, Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro filed a new motion in the Senate to waive the immunity of the Speaker of the Chamber. According to investigators, the earlier application in this case was unreasonably not considered. Grodzki then ruled that it was “a campaign to destabilize the Senate, which has long been a salt in the eyes of the rulers”.
The prosecutor’s request to waive the senator’s immunity goes to the Speaker of the House, who – after the Senate experts have determined whether he meets the formal conditions – submits the request to the Rules, Ethics and Senatorial Affairs. After studying the motion, she expresses her opinion on this to the entire Senate. The Senate decides by an absolute majority of votes on the immunity of a senator.
The Szczecin Regional Prosecutor’s Office and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) announced last Thursday that the charges of, among others, Krzysztof K., former head of the General and Vascular Surgery Department in Szczecin Zdunowo, were presented to Krzysztof K.. The prosecutor’s office said the materials from this case had been excluded from the investigation, in which the Regional Prosecutor’s Office wanted to file a complaint with the Senate Marshal.
Grodzki complains about the campaign
I see all this as a campaign not so much against me as against the Senate of the Republic of Poland to regain the majority of the ruling party, using undemocratic methods – said Senate Marshal Tomasz Grodzki, referring to the motion to seeing his immunity at the Senate committee meeting.
The waiver of Marshal Grodzki’s immunity is being demanded by the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Szczecin, which filed another motion in the case last December. According to the prosecutor’s office, Grodzki, as director of a specialized hospital in Szczecin and head of the local Department of Thoracic Surgery, accepted wealth payments from patients or their relatives.
At the beginning of the committee meeting, the regional prosecutor in Szczecin, Artur Maludy, upheld the motion and emphasized that Art. 228 of the Criminal Code, that is, the charge of “corruptibility of a person holding public office”.
Referring to the application, Grodzki emphasized that when he was director and head of the hospital in Szczecin, there had never been an allegation of corruption against him. He said he had even invited prosecutors to the hospital to provide training on where to draw the line between gratitude and corruption. He added that during his time as director and chief physician, strict rules were in place and not even flowers from patients were welcome.
Grodzki said the day after he was elected Senate Marshal, “a brutal campaign involving the entire state apparatus had begun against him,” the CBA was involved in the case, and a total of more than 200 people were questioned at the way, he estimated, “Quite biased.”
The prosecutor’s actions, Grodzki said, resulted in four votes, none of which describe a situation where he would demand something from someone. The Senate president stated that these votes “reported” – that is, in each of them, someone reported that he had heard from someone else about the possible corruption case.
Grodzki added that he was approached by a patient who said a man came to his apartment and offered him several thousand zlotys for making false charges, but – as the Senate Marshal judged – the prosecutor’s office was not “too diligent” in explaining this matter.
Meanwhile – said Grodzki – “the right-wing press has pronounced the verdict without explanation”. He ruled it a defamation, insisting that it mainly concerned three journalists against whom he had filed lawsuits, one of whom had already apologized to him as a result of the settlement.
He said there were criminal threats against him and his family following the press articles, and several such drastic cases were reported to the prosecution. He added that in none of these cases were the perpetrators of these acts traced.
I see all this as a campaign, not so much against me as against the Senate of the Republic of Poland, to regain the majority of the ruling party, using undemocratic methods, because the only method to regain the majority in the Senate is free is , democratic elections
said Grodzki, summarizing the matter.
mly / PAP
Source: wPolityce