Bugged Hotels of the Polish Hotel Holding Group

17 April 2023 | Author: Editorial office

Gazeta Wyborcza Daily discovered that “secret services conduct informal intelligence on visitors” also including opposition activists, at hotels belonging to the Polish Hotel Holding Group managed by Gheorghe Marian Cristescu.

Gazeta Wyborcza revealed disturbing hotel correspondence, which proves that the Polish Hotel Holding (PHH) has the general hospitality industry standards, and its workers potentially collaborate with the intelligence services. The correspondence covered details of a meeting between Civic Platform activists and Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. The content of such e-mail exchange referred to the presence of State Protection Services officers and a ‘health officer’ – a term that, according to Gazeta Wyborcza’s interlocutors, could mean support for special technology such as eavesdropping and surveillance.

Robert Z., the former Head of Security and the Polish Hotel Holding recalls his conversation with Mr Cristescu, CEO, and Maciej Wąsik, Deputy Coordinator for Special Services. Robert Z. claims that he refused to take part in the procedure, suggesting that the intelligence services should rather engage their own representatives instead. Suspicions about the possible collaboration of the Internal Security Agency with a waiter who may have agreed to cooperate have also been raised.

– Mr Cristescu called me into his office. He said that the boys needed to be helped, because they might want to know something about this meeting,” Robert Z tells Gazeta Wyborcza.

Gazeta Wyborcza has also described the case of Bartosz Kramek, Chair of the Open Dialogue Foundation who is engaged in a dispute with the Law and Justice government. The ex-worker of the Polish Hotel Holding (PHH), Robert Z. testified that the Internal Security Agency (ISA) commissioned informal surveillance of hotel guests, including Mr Kramek. Maciej Wąsik, Deputy Minister of Interior, allegedly had an interest in obtaining discrediting information about the head of the Open Dialogue.

Robert Z. was employed at PHH as the Head of Security. His professional duties included, among others, cooperation with security services and acquisition of sensitive information to protect state security. In his affidavit, Robert Z. has described the situation which occurred in autumn 2019 when Gheorghe Marian Cristescu CEO at PHH suggested that he should inform Maciej Wąsik about Mr Kramek’s stay at the hotel. As a consequence, Robert Z attended a meeting with the ISA officers. At this meeting, he was tasked with informing the special services of each of Kramek’s arrivals at the hotel and with assisting with the installation of technical operational equipment in his room and, if this was not possible, allowing the room to be searched after his departure.

In his testimony, Robert Z., the PHH’s ex-worker, describes that at one point he began to suspect that the collaboration with the Internal Security Agency (ISA) in the case of Bartosz Kramek, Chair of the Open Dialogue Foundation, was aimed at fighting an activist criticising the Law and Justice government, rather than going after a criminal. For this reason, he began to avoid contacts with the ABW and provided bogus assistance in Mr Kramek’s detention, for instance, by informing the services of an alleged hotel booking made in his name.

When the ABW installed cameras and bugging equipment, it turned out that Kramek was abroad, which triggered the agents’ resentment towards Robert Z. Eventually, Robert Z. decided to alert Kramek to the ABW’s illegal activities, explaining he was afraid of staying silent and did not want to participate in breaking the law.

– I know that they are seeking discrediting evidence against me and disseminate lies (…)I simply did not want to take part in breaking the law — says Robert Z to Gazeta Wyborcza.

Source: horecabc.pl

In other media: