Father Michał O. may be released from custody conditionally after paying a bail of PLN 350,000. His defense attorney announced the court's decision. Daniel Obajtek and Michał Rachoń, as well as – as Piotr Mueller informed – former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, declared their willingness to pay bail. This is the president of the Profeto Foundation, which was to build a support center for crime victims for almost one hundred million zlotys. According to investigators, officials of the Ministry of Justice, in consultation with the clergy, ensured that the foundation won the competition, although it did not meet the formal and substantive conditions. Thursday's court decision also applies to two other people detained in the investigation.
At the end of March, Father Michał O. – president of the Profeto Foundation, which received several dozen million zlotys from the Justice Fund, was detained by ABW officers. In addition, they also detained two officials of the Ministry of Justice. The court decided to arrest them. At the end of August, the District Court in Warsaw extended their detention for another three months. Their lawyers filed an appeal against this decision.
Court decision
The Court of Appeal in Warsaw considered them on Thursday. After leaving the courtroom, the priest's defense attorney, Father Krzysztof Wąsowski, said in a conversation with journalists that the court decided to conditionally release the arrests of the detained if all three will pay PLN 350,000 each. He explained that the priest and the officials would be released immediately after paying bail. The court gave them until November 15 to do so.
– We will try to pay this amount as quickly as possible and to ensure that each of our defendants can be released as soon as possible. We are not able to do it today, because these are technical issues, but I think that from tomorrow we will work hard on it – added Wąsowski.
Conditions of release from custody by Father O. and two clerks
– In addition, the court informed us that the change in the preventive measure would also apply a ban on all three of them leaving the countryalong with the seizure of their passports, as well They will have to report to police supervision twice a week and will be prohibited from contact with each other or with witnesses – Wąsowski continued.
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Morawiecki, Obajtek and Rachoń want to pay bail for the priest and the clerks
MEP and former spokesman PIS Piotr Mueller reported on Thursday evening on the X website that “Mateusz Morawiecki declares support in the amount of PLN 350,000 in paying the bail” for the priest. “Solidarity with people who have been subjected to repression in recent months,” we read in the entry.
Thursday evening Daniel Obajtekformerly the president of Orlen, and currently a PiS MEP, reported on social media that in a conversation with Father O.'s defense attorney, he declared his willingness to pay bail for him.
Meanwhile, Tomasz Sakiewicz, editor-in-chief of the right-wing Telewizja Republika, announced that Michał Rachoń, the current program director of this station and during the PiS government one of the main faces of the politicized government television, will pay the deposit for the two mentioned officials.
Charges against priest Michał O.
The National Prosecutor's Office has been conducting proceedings since February regarding the withdrawal of money from the Justice Fund
One of the main topics is a subsidy for the church Profeto Foundation, which for almost PLN 100 million was to build a support center for crime victims in Warsaw's Wilanów, which the foundation called Archipelago. According to investigators, officials from the Ministry of Justice, in consultation with Father Michał O., president of Profeto, ensured that the foundation won the competition, although it did not meet the formal and substantive conditions.
On October 22, the National Prosecutor's Office changed the charges against the priest and two officials, informed Przemysław Nowak, spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office.
The spokesman said that the charges were changed in the same direction as in the case of the suspect Marcin Romanowski, former deputy minister of justice supervising the Justice Fund – from abuse of trust (Article 296 of the Penal Code) to misappropriation of entrusted property (Article 284, paragraph 2 of the Penal Code).
READ ALSO: Change of charges against Father Michał O.
Main photo source: Fakty/TVN