Entrepreneurs terrified by project of preventive confiscation
22:22
Works on preventive confiscation, which was suspended before the presidential election, are coming to an end. They are dealt with by the Ministry of Justice, which has convened a special conference on this subject. Employers' organizations are terrified, according to Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
The new law stipulates that the state will be able to seize property – houses, money, cars, jewelry, etc., which in the last five years was in the possession of a suspect or accused of an organized crime group.
Gazeta Wyborcza emphasizes that the greatest controversy is related to the fact that it does not matter who currently owns the property that once belonged to the suspect. This property – regardless of who it currently belongs to – will be able to be transferred to the state treasury as a result of a court judgment.
Therefore, a property may be lost by persons against whom no criminal proceedings are pending. Moreover, in order to seize their property, law enforcement agencies will not have to prove that the property was derived from a crime. The draft of the ministry states that it is the citizen himself who has to prove that he had acquired the property legally.
"The solutions we propose are in no way directed against entrepreneurs," Zbigniew Ziobro, the minister of justice, said.
According to the ministry, the new law is in line with EU law, the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, and the Constitution of the Republic of Poland.
Employers think differently, as the daily underlines. "Confiscations of properties and actions of the prosecutor's office stand in contradiction with the constitutional right to property. This is unacceptable in a democratic state ruled by law," wrote the Entrepreneurship Council. In its opinion, this may be a blade against honest entrepreneurs.
"The right to seize their property in a situation of such a high degree of discretion in the adopted solutions and unfavorable external conditions resulting from the coronavirus pandemic may additionally increase the uncertainty related to running a business," emphasizes the Council.
