The right man in the right place – said President Andrzej Duda and employed Beata Kempa as a humanitarian adviser. At the same time, the prosecutor's office resumes the discontinued investigation into the organization of the collection of backpacks for children from Syria. The action was organized in Syców, Kempa's hometown. Material from the “Poland and World” magazine. The entire edition is available on TVN24 GO.
Beata Kempa has gained a new position as presidential adviser on humanitarian affairs, but old problems are coming back to her. Karolina Stocka-Mycek, spokeswoman for the District Prosecutor's Office in Wrocław, announced the resumption of the case of “destruction or theft” of school bags collected during the “School bag for Aleppo” humanitarian campaign.
It was an action organized six years ago in Syców, the hometown of Beata Kempa, then Minister of Humanitarian Aid, under her patronage. Students were collecting backpacks that were to be given to war-torn children Syria. However, local media reported that the school bags had been stored in a warehouse for months and some had disappeared.
Beata KempaRadek Pietruszka/PAP
– They were supposed to stay in the attic of the gymnasium for over a year, but were never transported – says Konrad Dulkowski from the Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior. – Only when it became loud that the school bags were lying there and deteriorating, were they handed over to priests who were supposed to take them to Aleppo, Syria – he adds.
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In 2019, the Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior submitted a notification to the prosecutor's office that some backpacks may have been stolen and destroyed, and that the action was carried out incorrectly.
– The prosecutor's office initially refused to initiate proceedings. Later, after our complaint was submitted to the court, when she was actually supposed to deal with it, the investigation was discontinued – Dulkowski points out.
The case was then handled by the District Prosecutor's Office in Oleśnica. As analyzes of discontinued cases indicate, not all activities indicated by the court were performed. – The point is to check what actually happened to these school bags, because the previous unit did not establish this – explains Karolina Stocka-Mycek.
The backpacks were delivered to those in need more than a year after the end of the collection
Father Professor Waldemar Cisło tells journalists that the backpacks finally reached Syria. – I was conducting an Advent retreat at that time in this parish in Syców and at the same time they asked me to donate these backpacks, because they did not have such opportunities – he explains.
The chairman of the Polish section of Pontifical Aid to the Church in Need shows documentation that has not reached the prosecutor's office. – We do not discuss documents. This is what I got. Everything was packed in three pallets. Here you have the given weight, 210 kg plus what we collected from other donors – explains the priest.
The campaign was announced on the primary school's website in April 2018 – in June, the school handed over equipped backpacks. – I don't know how long the Syców were there. I can tell you exactly when they were handed out on St. Nicholas Day in December 2019, he adds. That is, over a year after the collection.
– The result of this case was that people who live in Syców in Oleśnica County did not want to vote for politicians. PiSamong other things, because this case has not been fully clarified and that this case was swept under the carpet by the prosecutor's office – says Michał Jaros from the Civic Platform.
Beata Kempa replied to a question from “Rzeczpospolita” that she considered the initiation of an investigation to be harassment.
Main photo source: Radek Pietruszka/PAP