POLAND: Following wave of arrests amongst Poland's wealthy elite, financial markets dip

Poland is heading towards early elections on a bumpy road after a wave of arrests on Thursday (August 30) sparked accusations that the government is trying to silence political opponents. Among the three arrested officials was former Interior Minister Janusz Kaczmarek who is accused of interfering with corruption investigations. Kaczmarek denies the charges and in turn accuses Polish prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski of using secret services to spy on rival politicians. The opposition and human rights groups denounced the charges against Kaczmarek as politically motivated. They said the move was an attempt by the government to muzzle critical voices and cover up abuses of power in an anti-corruption crusade ahead of a parliamentary vote next week on calling a snap poll two years ahead of schedule. A string of events following the breakup of the ruling coalition in mid July has destabilized politics and raised the need for early elections. Opinion polls show that despite a booming economy Kaczynski's Law and Justice (PiS) party faces an uphill battle to remain in power. But people on the street find it hard to keep up with developments. "I think that the arrest of Kaczmarek and the charges against him don't make sense and they shouldn't have arrested him," said Warsaw resident Aleksandra Szurowska. "First they make him the minister of the interior giving him access to a lot of information and then they make him a criminal. A normal human mind cannot comprehend this." added Janusz Bukowski. Prosecutors said they were also seeking to detain a fourth man in the anti-corruption case, billionaire Ryszard Krauze. Financial markets have reacted with a sharp fall of share value in several firms owned by Krauze, Poland's fifth richest man, with wealth estimated at 4.5 billion zlotys (1.60 billion US dollars), following talk about his possible detention. "Of course the market reaction was very negative and there was a drop of Warsaw stock exchange by more than 2 percent and the shares owned by Mr. Krauze, dropped by, even some of them by 20 percent. But today the market reaction is positive already so the same shares are rising already but not to the extent that they dropped yesterday," said the chief analyst of a leading Polish bank BPH. A former police chief who served under Kaczmarek and the head of the state-owned insurance giant PZU were also charged with hampering the investigation into a leak in an anti-corruption case, prosecutors said. Parliament will vote on whether to call a snap election for October 21 at its session next week. The motion looks set to pass after the leftist opposition said it would also vote in favour.

ITN Source | September 3, 2007

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