Do Law and Justice party special services snoop on the opposition in hotels?

17 April 2023 | Author: Filip Praski

According to the ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ daily, guests of hotels operated by the Polish Hotel Holding (PHH), including opposition politicians, are being wiretapped during their stay. In claiming so, ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ relies on the information obtained from the former PHH Security Manager. The state-owned Polish Hotel Holding discredits this information and calls it ‘false’.

On 10 September 2020, leaders of the Civic Platform held a meeting in Warsaw with Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, Belarus presidency opposition candidate. The day before, the President of the Polish Hotel Holding, Gheorghe Marian Cristescu, was said to have conveyed a detailed information about the participants and the timing of the meeting to Joachim Brudziński. This was done in an email sent by the hotel manager Artur D. to Robert Z., who was PHH’s Security Manager at the time.

The Polish Hotel Holding claims that this information is false. In turn, ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ relies on the knowledge of Robert Z., according to whom such cases were frequent.

“Sanitary Physician” in the Room

The text of the email reads: ‘The menu and drinks have been confirmed by the Organiser, but the sanitary physician is also due to arrive’. In the lingo used by special services, the term ‘sanitary physician’ purportedly means wiretapping and surveillance.

‘If this term was used in internal emails between two important hotel employees, it means that they collaborate with the special services and are at least supposed to facilitate their operational tasks’ – a former officer of the Internal Security Agency (ABW) explained to ‘Gazeta Wyborcza’.

‘Gazeta Wyborcza’ asked the Polish Hotel Holding whether there was any surveillance of hotel guests in the hotels operated by PHH. The company replied: ‘The Polish Hotel Holding Group denies any «regular surveillance by its staff of guests pinpointed by the Internal Security Agency in PHH hotels»’.

Actions Against Bartosz Kramek

Robert Z. was employed as the Security Manager of the Polish Hotel Holding during the period from 2019 to 2021. He is said to have been given this job on the initiative of Joachim Brudziński and Maciej Wąsik. At the time there was a pending lawsuit instituted by Bartosz Kramek of the Open Dialogue Foundation against Maciej Wąsik. The Deputy Minister was accused of personal rights violation, as he publicly accused the Foundation of money laundering and connections with Russia.

Robert Z. maintains that the Internal Security Agency was interested in the activist and Wąsik wanted him discredited. Therefore, the PHH Security Manager was given specific instructions from the special services.

I was informed that I was requested to notify each arrival of Mr. Kramek at the Renesans Hotel, to provide information on the method of payment, credit card details, as well as to facilitate the installation of technical operational devices prior to Mr Kramek’s arrival at the hotel’ – wrote Z. in his statement.

‘If I were to be unable to facilitate the planting of these devices, I was asked to expediate a room search after Mr. Kramek left the hotel and, if this was also not possible, I was asked to personally comb the room and report the findings if, for example, any condom wrappers, medication packaging, or bottles of alcohol, that is items that could in any way discredit Mr. Kramek or disclose his habits or possible addictions etc. were found’ – he added.

The Polish Hotel Holding Attacks its Former Employee and Issues a Statement

In response to questions of ‘Gazeta Wyborcza” journalists, the Press Office of the PHH wrote: ‘The Polish Hotel Holding Group is aware that it is the former employee of the Polish Hotel Holding, Mr. Robert Z., who is behind dissemination of false information, and that it is done in retaliation for the failure to meet unfounded demands made against the company after termination of employment with this person’.

The Company claims that Robert Z. ‘has threatened to disclose the company’s secrets’ and ‘disseminates false information about the Group’.

Furthermore, the President of the Polish Hotel Holding issued a statement.

Robert Z. simply said: ‘I know they are collecting all bits and pieces of information that could be used against me and will spread lies. I am not troubled. I conducted myself with integrity and decency. I simply did not want to take part in violating the law’.

Source: upday.com

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