Supreme Audit Office chief: my family is persecuted by anti-corruption bureau

Officers of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) on Wednesday entered a home in the outskirts of Warsaw belonging to Jakub Banaś, the son of the President of the Supreme Audit Office (NIK) Marian Banaś. The latter issued a statement later that day standing in front the NIK headquarters in Warsaw.

"The CBA operation taken in relation to my son cannot be viewed outside the context of the results of a control of the organisation of the presidential election that were supposed to take place in May 2020, fragments of which were published yesterday by the media" - said the NIK chief.

Banaś said the search has also affected his son's wife and children. "This was yet another search of the same property. My son, just like myself, has been under constant surveillance and faced repression along with his family. It's all happening in order to force to resign as the Supreme Audit Office President and to change the results of completed and ongoing inquiries" - he stressed.

The NIK president explained the search involved his son and his son's wife. "The CBA officers secured her private and official data stored in documents, phones and computers. The search was deliberately in the presence of my wife, which was meant to exert further pressure on me" - Marian Banaś argued.

"This reminds of the bolshevik era when, after the martial law had been imposed, I was arrested and sentenced for 4 years in prison for being a patriot loyal to Poland and Solidarity. Nowadays, in supposedly free and independent Poland, the current government is doing the same thing. Whoever disagrees with the government can get arrested and sentenced based on aspersions" - he said.

According to Banaś, "this is a classic police state ruled by special services, rather than the prime minister, president or parliament".

"Currently, the NIK is the only independent institution, not controlled by the ruling camp or any other political party" - he said. "That's how it should be, and that's what it (NIK) was founded for. I assure you I will protect the independence of the NIK until the end of my term, and no provocation or falsification will stop me" - he stressed.

The search of Jakub Banaś' home took place two days after the Onet portal had reported that NIK would soon release a report regarding the postal voting from May 10, 2020, which in the end didn't happen. Onet journalists published some post-control documents that "have become the bone of contention in the NIK itself, and that the ruling camp is afraid of". According to Onet, the NIK "has evidence putting the chief of the cabinet Mateusz Morawiecki and the chief of his office Michał Dworczyk in difficult legal position".