WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A deputy foreign minister in Poland’s previous right-wing government gave prosecutors the impression Wednesday that he was hearing charges similar to the alleged sale of visas and permits to enter paintings to immigrants for thousands of dollars, anti-corruption officials said. .
The cash-for-visas scandal erupted last summer and undermined the ruling Law and Justice party’s hardline stance on immigration, which lost steam in October’s parliamentary elections. An investigation was opened early last year.
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The Central Anti-Corruption Bureau said on Wednesday it had arrested the former deputy foreign minister, who dealt with consular affairs and was known only as Piotr W. due to Polish privacy laws.
He was brought to the city of Lubin where prosecutors presented him with charges of having exceeded his authority in handling ministry documents, influencing the issuing of Polish visas and sharing classified information with an unauthorized person in 2022-23.
If convicted at trial, the defendant faces up to 10 years in prison.
Subsequently, the National Prosecutor’s Office maintained the defendant’s innocence and refused to testify.
He was released on bail. Eight other people have been charged in the case, the anti-corruption office said.
In August, Polish media reported allegations that Polish consular sections had issued some 250,000 visas to migrants from Asia and Africa since 2021 in exchange for bribes. At the same time, the deputy foreign minister was fired and the media linked him to the scandal.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Last week, two ministers from the former Law and Justice government, former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and his deputy Maciej Wąsik, were arrested and sent to prison after being found guilty of abuse of power.
Law and Justice and their ally, President Andrzej Duda, are protesting the imprisonment.
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