Marek P, a Polish Catholic Church plenipotentiary, has been arrested by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) on suspicion of giving a bribe to a member of the Assets Commission, which is charged with returning property seized from the church during the communist period. The accused was arrested for suspicions concerning recovered assets in the Kraków area.
Marek P, who was formally an ex-state security officer, will be detained for three months in Gliwice while an investigation takes place.
“If it is confirmed that land were taken from the city with the help of a crime, then we should either get the land back or receive compensation,” Jacek Majchrowski, Mayor of Kraków, told Gazeta Wyborcza.
The Kraków diocese has promised to cooperate with prosecutors on this issue.
“We are interested in explaining all the irregularities connected with compensation for assets stolen during communism and recovered by legal persons representing the church,” said Robert Necek, spokesperson for the diocese.
Marek P had earlier helped recover assets worth hundreds of millions of zloty for the church, according to Wyborcza. In cases where the physical assets couldn't be returned, he arranged for compensation from the government or for alternative assets.
He is also suspected of having bribed more officials of the commission to issue decisions favorable to the church, as well as using a corrupt property appraiser to price assets below market value.
As an intermediary for the church, Marek P would allegedly buy the assets and then sell them on at a higher price on behalf of the church, taking a cut for himself.
Since the Assets Commission was set-up in 1991, it has returned assets worth over zł.24 billion to the Polish Catholic Church.
SIC: WBJ/EU