Daniel Obajtek, the former head of Poland’s Orlen concern, has been charged by prosecutors with making false statements under oath, yet the case may rest on surprisingly weak foundations. Rzeczpospolita has established that investigators have neither the original recording central to the accusation nor any information about who taped Obajtek.
The charges were brought at the end of July and relate to testimony the former CEO gave in May 2023. Obajtek appeared as a witness in a case in which journalist Piotr Nisztor took Grzegorz Jakubowski of Gazeta Finansowa to court over articles about the employment of Nisztor’s wife and father at the fuel concern. In his testimony, Obajtek said he had no informal contact with the journalist and knew him only as a reporter for TV Republika.
Giving false testimony under Polish law carries a potential prison sentence of up to eight years, which makes the evidentiary situation all the more significant.
Only a copy from Onet
In March 2024, the Onet portal published what it said were recordings from Obajtek’s office dating back to 2018. The material was alleged to capture a conversation between Obajtek and Nisztor. However, the prosecutor’s office admitted to Rzeczpospolita that it does not possess the original recording or the carrier on which the conversation was registered.
Asked what it has as evidence, the prosecution replied: a copy from Onet. That is the entire material on which the accusation against the former Orlen CEO is based.
– The opinion of a court expert in phonoscopy showed that the obtained recording of the conversation is authentic, no breaks during the registration of the event were found, no removal of fragments of the recording after it was made, nor compilation of several recordings into one. The evidentiary recording illustrates the continuity of the recording – said prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba, spokesman for the prosecutor’s office.
Unknown author of the tape
A major unknown in the case is the identity of the person who made the recording. According to Rzeczpospolita, the authorities have not established who recorded Obajtek.
The recording became public more than a year after the testimony it is now supposed to undermine. The case concerns a defamation dispute between two journalists, with Orlen’s hiring practices as the background.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. Paweł Supernak / PAP
