Ministerial aide and corporate director involved in attempted drugs bribe

According to the Internal Security Agency (ABW), two people connected with the scandal of demanding bribes for including medicines on the state-reimbursed drugs list, which was recently revealed by Rzeczpospolita, plan to leave Poland. According to the Agency, one of them, Waldemar Deszczyński, the former head of the political office of Health Minister Mariusz Łapiński, allegedly demanded a several million dollar bribe from a foreign pharmaceutical company. The other person is a director of the Polish division of that firm. "At the current stage of the investigation, there are no legal means of preventing them from leaving the country," said ABW spokeswoman Captain Magdalena Kluczyńska. During their talks with the Agency, both men admitted they were planning foreign journeys, but agreed to postpone them. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A1) M.M.