Stanisław Gawłowski delivered his closing remarks. "An entire machine has been created to destroy me."

"I am innocent. I was the victim of political repression. Law and Justice is taking revenge on me for attacking their finances" – these are the key points of the closing argument by Civic Coalition senator Stanisław Gawłowski, one of the defendants in the so-called land improvement scandal. The politician faces seven charges, including accepting a bribe. Soon, perhaps as early as next week, we will learn the ruling of the Szczecin District Court in this case.

Stanisław Gawłowski, an influential politician in Western Pomerania and, years ago, the second-most important figure in the Civic Platform party, recounted in court on Wednesday that he had offended the right wing when he refused to grant a geothermal subsidy to the Lux Veritatis Foundation, associated with Father Tadeusz Rydzyk. He also had Kazimierz Kujda dismissed from his position as president of the National Environmental Protection Fund, precisely because of his funding of the foundation. And Kazimierz Kujda, the senator emphasized, is Jarosław Kaczyński's "personal financier."

- From the point of view of the people who brought me here, it was a decisive sin - said Gawłowski.

The politician also allegedly risked retaliation by dismissing Konrad Tomaszewski, Jarosław Kaczyński's cousin, from his position at the State Forests. As Gawłowski stated, Tomaszewski was the chief analyst at the State Forests, meaning he made all the decisions.

- I was not aware that I was attacking the financial center of PiS - the KO senator summed up this thread.

Gawłowski believes he has been targeted by the right wing ever since. The hunt for him allegedly began in 2008, when the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), headed by PiS man Mariusz Kamiński, sent the notorious "agent Tomek" to Western Pomerania, who was supposed to get close to Gawłowski's wife and thus gather evidence against him.

(...)

This is the perspective of Stanisław Gawłowski.

The prosecutor's office has a completely different perspective. The prosecutor has charged the politician with seven counts, including corruption and money laundering. The politician allegedly received watches and an apartment in Croatia as bribes. The investigator is seeking a 6.5-year prison sentence for the senator and a fine of 180,000 złoty. His wife, who is also in the dock, is serving a 1.5-year prison sentence, suspended for four years.

In a complex and multi-layered case, the core of which is alleged to be corruption at the West Pomeranian Board of Land Improvement and Water Facilities, more than 20 people, in addition to Stanisław Gawłowski, were charged. Some of the defendants pleaded guilty and voluntarily accepted their sentences. One of the defendants, Bogdan K., who claimed Gawłowski had accepted bribes, later recanted his testimony and apologized to the senator. ©℗

Text and photos by Alan Sasinowski

More on this topic in Thursday's "Kurier Szczeciński" and eKurier of July 24, 2025.