The Polish Government Makes Unsubstantiated Charges In Its Quest To Clean Up Poland
Classified Polnews
The Polish Government has a history of making unsubstantiated charges and false accusations when doing so suits its goals. In the Mazur extradition case, the evidence presented to the US Court was so weak that the judge said that it did not even give rise to probable cause.
Palace Of Justice
Very briefly, probable cause means that there is a reasonable belief that a person has committed a crime. A belief must be reasonable and not convenient. (More on probable cause is at 'Lectric Law Library )
The Mazur extradition case is just the most recent in a series of cases where reason may have given way to convenience.
The Kaczynski's Government has been on a quest to root out and destroy the illusive "uklad" that has run Poland since 1989. They are doing this with a religious zeal characterized by the Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski infamous statement that if you do not support them you are with the infamous communist Polish secret police, Zomo. See Polish prime minister draws black line
Mazur may be a convenient target in that quest. His lawyers definitely think so. They accused Polish authorities of framing their client out of desperation, vindictiveness and a desire to smear the leftist opposition, to which Mazur has close ties.
The judge was not impressed with the Polish Government's case. He denounced Poland's key witness as a "known scoundrel" and the prosecutors for submitting faulty and incomplete evidence.
In a 69-page written opinion, he said that in his 10 years in ruling on extradition case she had never even come close to no less denied a request for extradition. He apparently saw little or no evidence giving rise to probable cause and he would not just assume that because the Polish Government said there was, there was. He criticised the Polish Government when he said, "...the court is not merely a rubber stamp for a foreign government's decision that probable cause exists,…."
This is not the first instance where a court, in a high profile case, rejected the Polish Government's charges due to lack of evidence.
In a media staged event, a famous Polish heart surgeon was arrested and charged with corruption and murder.
Murder was charged in spite of an earlier decision that it was a case of medical malpractice.
With cameras running, the doctor was handcuffed and taken into custody at the hospital where he worked. The Minister of Justice announced that the doctor would never commit murder again.
He was soon released on bail by a Polish court that said that it did not see any evidence supporting a murder charge. See Polish Prosecutors Use Poland's Public Television To Promote High Profile Prosecution
The way Polish Authorities handled this matter lead to the Chief Justice of Poland's Constitutional Tribune agreeing that the Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro, should face the State Tribunal for his actions. See Minister Of Justice Should Face State Tribunal Says Polish Chief Justice
Unsubstantiated accusations have come from places other than the Ministry of Justice.
As part of Poland's quest to purify itself of communist agents, Deputy Minister of Defense Antoni Macierewicz, notorious for his talents for destruction, has caused uproars over his unfounded accusations.
He accused Poland's former ministers of foreign affairs, many of whom are heros of the Polish revolution against communism, of having been Soviet agents. Succumbing to public outrage, he apologized and said his mind took a "mental shortcut." And the Government kept him in office.
He proceeded to accuse General Dukaczewski of being responsible for irregularities in the Polish Military Intelligence Services add that he was responsible for unlawful actions taken against the media, politicians and business during the years 2001 to 2005.
It is not known if his mind took another mental shortcut, but a Polish court ruled the Macierewicz had no basis to make those accusations and ordered him to apologize. See in Polish Macierewicz ma przeprosic gen. Dukaczewskiego
And in the case of Andrzej Lepper that currently has the Poland in turmoil, a complex undercover operation was set up to try to entrap him in a corruption scheme. And even when he evaded it, the Prime Minister, while admitting that he had no solid evidence to show that Lepper was involved in corruption, fired him.
There are claims of falsified documents and illegal activities. Evidence may have been manufactured. Opposition politicians are demanding a Parliamentary investigation.
The Government is so worried about what might be found that it is willing to dissolve the Government and face new elections before it consents to the investigation going forward. See Poland's Prime Minister Sets Conditions For Polish Coalition Government
As for the Mazur case, there has been no public criticism of the evidence in Poland. The unexpected ruling against extradition by the Judge was enough to get people's attention.
Adamiak-Drendarz of the Polish Ministry of Justice said, "We respect the American judge's considered opinion, but we cannot agree that Polish prosecutors prepared the evidence in an unprofessional manner." Source http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSL2165292320070721?feedType=RSS Poland plans to pursue Mazur extradition case
Evidence presented to the Court included some gathered under the previous Government. So it cannot be said that the current Government had a hand in creating or gathering it.
But it was the current Government that used the evidence to its convenience. It may not have been unprofessionally prepared but rather unprofessionally used to reach an objective, as apparently has been done in other cases of convenience initiated by this Government.
If there is proper evidence that will support probable cause in the Mazur case, then the case can be differentiated from those accusations that have been based on other less rigorous standards.
That evidence, if it exists, has not yet been made public.
