Polish ex-MEP arrested over nephew’s private university scandal

Ryszard Czarnecki, a former Polish EU lawmaker and vice president of the European Parliament, was detained at Warsaw airport on Wednesday in connection with a private university scandal.

Czarnecki, who represented the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), lost his MEP seat in June’s EU election.

His arrest came shortly after a Polish prosecutor saddled him with fraud charges for racking up six-figure travel expenses during his time as an MEP. Czarnecki has dismissed the case as “lies and complete nonsense.”

According to the Polish interior ministry, however, Czarnecki’s Wednesday arrest was related to a different case concerning Collegium Humanum, a private university. 

The school is under investigation by Poland’s Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA), which alleges that Collegium Humanum issued MBA diplomas entitling students to sit on the boards of Polish state-owned companies in exchange for material and personal benefits.

The founder and former rector of the university, Paweł Czarnecki, was arrested by the CBA in February. According to the Wirtualna Polska news portal, Czarnecki has been charged with 30 crimes — including bribery, abusing his position and coercing people into sex.

Paweł Czarnecki is the nephew of Ryszard Czarnecki, and along with his uncle had many high-level relationships within PiS — the party that lost power in last year’s elections in Poland.

Ryszard Czarnecki’s wife Emilia H. was also arrested in Warsaw on Wednesday. Onet (owned in part by German publisher Axel Springer, which owns POLITICO) writes that she was also an employee of Collegium Humanum.

“As the prosecutor’s actions against my client have not yet been carried out, and the prosecutor’s office has not decided whether and what charges it intends to bring against him, I cannot comment on his situation or present his potential position at the moment,” Ryszard Czarnecki’s attorney Paweł Knap said Wednesday following the former lawmaker’s arrest, Onet reported.

The new government of PM Donald Tusk is pressing for PiS politicians to face prosecution for corruption and other misdeeds.