The former head of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin, Jerzy Ziarkiewicz – nominated by Zbigniew Ziobro and dismissed by Adam Bodnar – drove over 120,000 kilometers during the year for public money. kilometers – reports “Gazeta Wyborcza”. This is a distance that allows you to circle the Earth three times. Ziarkiewicz defeated him mainly by private car. The case is under investigation by the prosecutor.
As reported by Tuesday's “Gazeta Wyborcza”, the former head of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin, Jerzy Ziarkiewicz, traveled over 120,000 kilometers on business trips in 2023. The daily points out that such a distance would allow one to circle the globe three times.
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Calculations of Lublin investigators interviewed by the newspaper show that the former head of the local prosecutor's office would have to drive 570 kilometers every day – excluding days off. For this reason, he could obtain a total amount of approximately PLN 140,000. – When did he find time to work? – the “GW” interlocutors ask.
Investigation into Ziarkiewicz's mileage
Importantly, the trips were often made by private car – a Hyundai Tucson, an SUV – and the vast majority of delegations, among others, to Warsaw, Krakow, Katowice or Wrocław, Ziarkiewicz, as the head of the prosecutor's office, approved himself.
There is an ongoing prosecutor's investigation into Ziarkiewicz's mileage. The District Prosecutor's Office in Nowy Sącz is checking whether there was any “exceeding of powers by a state official in order to obtain financial benefits”, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
The investigation is at an early stage, Ziarkiewicz has not been questioned yet.
Jerzy ZiarkiewiczTVN24
Ziarkiewicz suspended, garage with files in the background
At the beginning of October this year. Jerzy Ziarkiewicz was suspended for six months by the decision of the Minister of Justice, Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar (until April 2025). As we reported, this is the result of disciplinary proceedings concerning “obvious and flagrant violation of the law and violation of the dignity of the office” during the period when Ziarkiewicz was a regional prosecutor in Lublin.
Earlier – in January – Bodnar dismissed Ziarkiewicz and nine other district and district prosecutors.
Ziarkiewicz became the head of Lublin investigators during the United Right government thanks to the nomination of the former Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro. According to “GW”, the founder of Radio Maryja, his father, was said to have lobbied for him Tadeusz Rydzyk.
Ziarkiewicz's prosecutor's office conducted, among others, proceedings regarding the trading of counterfeit invoices by Jan O., who is the father of Fr. Michał O., head of the Profeto foundation, a suspect in the investigation regarding the Justice Fund. There were several suspects regarding the invoices, but a week after PiS lost the parliamentary elections in 2023 the charges against Jan O. – as the only suspect – were dropped.
Investigators subordinated to Ziarkiewicz also dealt with kilometers of former PiS MEP Ryszard Czarneckiand also a matter extracting the brother of the former police commander, Jarosław Szymczyk, from custodysuspected of membership in an organized criminal group robbing the state on a large scale using the “VAT carousel”. Ziarkiewicz was to instruct the prosecutor handling the case of the commander's brother and other suspects to withdraw the files of Łukasz S. from the application for re-arrest.
Ziarkiewicz himself became famous primarily for keeping files of cases affecting people associated with the United Right in his garage – “Wyborcza” was the first to write about it. The prosecutor allegedly blocked investigations into PiS politicians for years.
Irregularities in the Lublin prosecutor's office
Due to doubts surrounding Ziarkiewicz's decision, a query and lustration were carried out at the Lublin prosecutor's office, which covered the period from January 1, 2023 to February 29, 2024.
As the press spokesman of the National Prosecutor's Office, Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, informed in a press release of September 13, the irregularities identified mainly concern delays, among others, in decreeing cases and assigning them to the relevant prosecutor's department, in making the decision to take over the case for further investigation, in undertaking preparatory proceedings after the exclusion of investigation materials to be conducted in a separate proceeding, in making decisions to discontinue the investigation before it is initiated, and in examining complaints against prosecutors' decisions.
Garage of prosecutor Ziarkiewicz's documentsTVN24
“Gazeta Wyborcza”, tvn24.pl
Main photo source: TVN24