Gilowska not guilty - technically
Former Finance Minister Zyta Gilowska's vetting statement was found truthful by a court charged with examining if she had cooperated with communist secret services (SB). Justice Małgorzata Majkowska stressed that the accusations against Gilowska were based on circumstantial evidence, which was not enough to prove that she had consciously cooperated with the SB.
The justification of the verdict infuriated Gilowska, but Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński nevertheless offered to take her back into the government.
Justice Majkowska found that Gilowska was registered as a secret collaborator under the name Beata in 1986, and that Gilowska probably knew that her acquaintance Witold Wieczorek, the man who registered her, was an SB officer. Gilowska had denied this. The court also considered the reports based on information passed on by 'Beata' to be truthful. However, Justice Majkowska said it could not be proven that Gilowska had been aware that she was passing on information as a secret collaborator.
According to the Constitutional Tribunal's ruling, this criterion needs to be met in order to consider somebody a secret collaborator.
In the opinion of the court, Gilowska did not pay any attention to what she was saying and to whom. "It cannot be excluded that that the garrulousness of the vetted contributed to the fact that Wieczorek registered her without her knowledge," Justice Majkowska said.
This infuriated Gilowska, who wants to appeal. "This is a disgrace. This woman has thrown mud at me," she was heard whispering to her lawyer.
Despite the controversial justification of the ruling, Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński again offered Gilowska a return to government. "If Mrs Gilowska wishes, she may come back to her former seats of Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister," he said. Gilowska did not comment on the offer.
Gilowska lost her post at the end of June, when the suspicion that she had lied in her statement appeared.
Under the current vetting system, individuals who hold important public offices are obliged to submit vetting statements. If the court rules they have lied in their statement, they immediately lose their posts and are banned from holding any other public office for 10 years from the date of the verdict.
