On the night from Thursday to Friday, Piotr Wawrzyk, former deputy minister of foreign affairs, was hospitalized. Earlier, the police intervened in the apartment where he was staying. The case is being handled by the prosecutor’s office. The media reports widely about it, and there is conflicting information. What have we agreed on this matter?
On the last day of August, the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki dismissed Piotr Wawrzyk from the position of Secretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to the ministry, the reason for this decision was the “lack of satisfactory cooperation”, but the media reported that the reason was the visa scandal. According to Onet, Wawrzyk was thrown out of the government and the PiS lists because he helped his associates create an illegal channel for transporting immigrants from Asia and Africa through Europe to the United States.
Prosecutor’s Office i Central Anticorruption Bureau conduct investigations into irregularities in submitting visa applications. The opposition talks about corruption and claims that hundreds of thousands of documents issued arouse suspicion. In this case, Edgar K., an associate of the deputy minister, was detained in April and arrested for a month. According to our information, he was released after a month because he decided to cooperate with CBA agents and the prosecutor.
Meanwhile, on Friday, RMF FM radio and other media reported that the dismissed deputy minister had been hospitalized. On Friday evening on government television Zbigniew Ziobro he said that “Mr. Wawrzyk took his own life.”
What do we know about this case?
Police, rescuers and a relative
As we found out from two independent sources, the incident took place on the night from Thursday to Friday in an apartment in Powiśle. A relative of the former deputy minister of foreign affairs was said to be worried because his loved one had stopped speaking. He went to the site and called the police. Paramedics arrived before the officers in Powiśle.
The police entered the apartment where the politician was staying around midnight. He was taken to hospital by ambulance. He was sober.
It is not known whether Wawrzyk’s condition threatened his physical or mental health.
Piotr Wawrzyk was taken to hospital Paweł Supernak/PAP
A letter and words with a good heart
During the intervention, the former deputy minister was said to have explained to the policemen in anger that he had never accepted bribes from anyone and that he helped out of the goodness of his heart.
Ziobro said on government television that Wawrzyk wrote a letter in which he argued that he felt like he was being hunted because he was honest.
There was also information in the media that Wawrzyk had to self-report to one of Warsaw hospitals with mental problems. Our sources do not confirm this information.
We do not know what exactly happened in the apartment of the dismissed deputy minister, nor do we know what caused his behavior. Experts emphasize that suicidal thoughts and attempts are usually a combination of many factors.
The prosecutor’s office is conducting an investigation
The investigation into this case will be conducted by the District Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw. Marta Gierlicka, deputy spokeswoman of the Warsaw Police Headquarters, also refers us to its spokesman.
The prosecutor’s office is to check whether anyone encouraged the politician to take his own life.
We were unable to contact investigators in this case on Friday. We have sent questions. We are waiting for answer.
Lawyer, political scientist
Wawrzyk is a political scientist and lawyer, with a habilitation degree in social sciences. He was born in 1967. He is a graduate of the Institute of Political Sciences and the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Warsaw. In the years 1994-1997 he worked in the Sejm Committees Office of the Chancellery of the Sejm, and then in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, where he participated in negotiations regarding Poland’s accession to the European Union.
In the years 2000-2002, he cooperated with the Department of European Legislation of the Office of the Committee for European Integration as part of work on adapting Polish law to the law of the European Union. From February 2018 to October 2019, he was Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for legal and treaty matters.
IN elections In October 2019, he was elected as a member of parliament for the 9th term.
At the end of 2020, “Gazeta Wyborcza” reported that Wawrzyk had been an activist of the Polish People’s Party for several years, and he was to join the party in the late 1990s. – He helped us very well in the club’s work. We met for coffee and talked almost every day – former PSL MP Mirosław Pawlak told “Wyborcza”.
If you are experiencing emotional problems and would like advice or support, here is a list of organizations offering professional help. In a situation of immediate threat to life, call 997 or 112.
Main photo source: Paweł Supernak/PAP