Polish opposition leader fights back as ruling party opens investigation

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – Donald Tusk, the leader of Poland's main opposition party Civic Platform, said the investigation opened on Monday into his alleged role when he was prime minister in 2014 in a Polish coal company are politically motivated.

"Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro and his prosecutor's office are conducting an investigation against me in connection with the accusation that, as prime minister, I limited the import of Russian coal," Tusk said on Tuesday in Rzeszow, southeastern Poland.

"They may try to make me a fugitive, but the movie with that title ends well. Those who pursue me will be held accountable for every evil they have done," he added.

A notification was made by the Warsaw prosecutor's office in November last year in reference to information obtained from businessman Marek Falenta, a key protagonist "in the 2014 wire-tapping scandal." It refers to the control of Polish coal company, Sklady Wegla.

The investigation was launched on the basis that Falenta's notification is not being conducted against Tusk, the district prosecutor's office in Warsaw said this week, adding that it does not intend to interrogate the former prime minister for the time being.

Falenta served a prison sentence for wire-tapping politicians in 2013-2014 in Warsaw restaurants.

"An investigation was initiated in the first half of 2014, on an undetermined date, in an unspecified place, by a public official – Donald Tusk – the then Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland, in order to obtain a financial benefit by entities trading in hard coal," read the official letter of the prosecutor's office published on Monday.

Tusk, who was once head of the EU, was alleged to have "ordered an inspection of the company Sklady Wegla without a legal or factual basis in order to force the cessation of coal imports from the Russian Federation, thus acting to the detriment of the company's private interest."

Tusk assured Civic Platform MPs that the party and wider coalition would win parliamentary elections to be held in September at the latest.