Waiver of Immunity and Candidacy in Poland: Grodzki Case and Prosecution

A move to strip immunity and remove a candidate from the upcoming parliamentary ballot has been formally submitted to Senate President Tomasz Grodzki by Szczecin residents running for both seats on the PiS list, Dariusz Matecki and Agnieszka Kurzawa. The appeal urges Grodzki to waive his parliamentary immunity and, beyond that, to step aside from his campaign for senator of the Republic of Poland.

The Szczecin Regional Prosecutor’s Office has gathered statements from 236 witnesses who testified that some individuals allegedly pressed for money in exchange for expediting admission to hospital care. On the basis of these testimonies, Matecki argues that President Grodzki should not only respond to the accusations with transparency but also consider withdrawing from the senatorial race so that the matter can be examined more openly by the courts. He notes that the gravity of the allegations warrants independent review in the Polish legal system.

– said Dariusz Matecki, representing Sovereign Poland, a Sejm candidate from the PiS list, in Szczecin.

Indictment against Grodzki

As previously reported, the Szczecin prosecutor’s office intends to file charges against Senate President Tomasz Grodzki, alleging fraud against patients, bribery, and money laundering. Investigators claim that Grodzki bore responsibility for coordinating crimes with other doctors and for acting in ways that facilitated these offenses. The Public Prosecutor’s Office added that the National Public Prosecutor’s Office received a formal request from the Szczecin Regional Public Prosecutor to waive the immunity of the Senate’s chairperson.

Matecki questions whether a larger number of individuals were brought in and whether their testimonies were disingenuous. He emphasizes that the accusations touch on substantial sums, approaching PLN 2.5 million, and argues that Grodzki should face the legal process in an independent court so that residents of Szczecin, Western Pomerania, and the country at large—and the media—can hear firsthand the testimonies involved.

– said the Sovereign Poland candidate.

Waiver of immunity

Public Prosecution Service materials indicate that the charges span the period from 2008 to 2019 and involve attempts to extract payments from patients for operations carried out within the state health system. The prosecutor’s findings suggest that the marshal urged others to commit crimes, including doctors who had previously faced charges, effectively encouraging them to participate in wrongdoing.

In the request to waive Grodzki’s immunity submitted to the Senate, prosecutors categorize the acts under specific provisions of the Criminal Code, including crimes related to patient fraud, bribery, and money laundering. The filing notes that these events are distinct from earlier requests for waiving immunity.

– stated the National Public Prosecutor’s Office.

The current request is not the first effort to obtain Grodzki’s immunity waiver. In March 2021, Szczecin’s prosecutors sought to lift the marshal’s immunity and sent a formal petition to the Senate. The Public Prosecution Service later indicated that Grodzki would face charges on four counts of accepting financial benefits during his tenure as director of a Szczecin specialty hospital and as head of the local Department of Thoracic Surgery. The Senate did not act on that motion because it required corrections, and the prosecutors then renewed the request. In May of the same year, the Senate again declined to hold Grodzki criminally liable.

READ ALSO:

— Another motion to waive Grodzki’s immunity. Ziobro asks: Are the sick and abused who burden him – as he says – hysterical?

— New motion from the Public Prosecution Service regarding Marshal Grodzki. Crack: The majority provided him protection under the Neumann Doctrine

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Source: wPolityce