Prison sentences for political activists who defrauded Polish Red Cross to fund election campaign
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/05/2023 (1244 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A Polish court has convicted nine people, including two former activists of the governing Law and Justice party, of using donations to the regional Red Cross to fund an election campaign.
The court in the city of Wroclaw estimated the scam cost the Red Cross some 3 million zlotys ($660,000).
The court sentenced the former head of the Wroclaw regional Red Cross, identified only as Jerzy G., to three years and five months in prison. His deputy, Piotr B., received a sentence of two years and seven months.
Both were activists for Law and Justice, serving as a regional councilor and a lawmaker respectively.
They have also been ordered to refund the money and pay fines. Others received prison terms of between 12 and 18 months, two of them suspended terms.
The verdict is subject to appeal.
The court found them guilty of selling clothes and food donated to the Red Cross in order to funnel money to Law and Justice for its regional campaign during the 2015 parliamentary election. The party won that election and is currently in its second term of government.
The verdict adds to image problems for Law and Justice, which has started campaigning intensively to win a third term in parliamentary elections in the fall. Questions are being raised over tens of millions of zlotys of subsidies from the Education Ministry that have gone into real estate purchases rather than to education programs.
Political parties in Poland receive state subsidies and can receive private donations but are banned from doing business or drawing funds from business.