Prosecutors in Gdańsk, the home city of Polish president-elect Karol Nawrocki, have opened an investigation into his acquisition of a small apartment.
Authorities claimed there was a “reasonable suspicion of a crime” regarding the acquisition of the property from an old-age pensioner.
A guilty ruling would carry a prison sentence of six months to eight years.
The prosecutors’ action followed complaints filed by the Left party’s senator and unsuccessful presidential candidate Magdalena Biejat alongside Aleksandra Dulkiewicz, the mayor of Gdańsk, alleging that Nawrocki obtained the property by deception.
In a statement issued on social media on June 16, prosecutors said they were investigating whether the former property owner may have been misled into signing over ownership based on promises of payment and care that were never fulfilled.
They were to examine documents from the courts, notaries, the prison in which the pensioner served a jail sentence as well as medical and social services in Gdańsk.
The acquisition of the apartment by Nawrocki came to light during the presidential campaign.
Liberal portal Onet published a story that the opposition Conservatives’ (PiS) candidate was the owner of a flat he acquired from an old-age pensioner who had come into possession of it from the municipality.
According to documents obtained by the media, Nawrocki had allegedly paid the discounted amount due to the municipality in 2012 on behalf of the pensioner and then signed a contract with a market-based amount, transferring the property’s deeds in 2017
Nawrocki admitted that the agreement was one in which he promised to care for the pensioner and to let him stay in the property. He also claimed the amount cited in the contract referred to money he had already provided for the pensioner’s needs.
Although the pensioner did indeed live in the property until 2024, when he was taken into care by the municipal authorities, allegations surfaced that Nawrocki had not kept his part of the bargain referring to his care.
The pensioner was portrayed as vulnerable in some of the media’s stories but it later transpired that the individual had been a serial felon and an alcoholic.
Nawrocki ’s parents had once been neighbours of the man.
Nawrocki denied allegations that he misled the pensioner, arguing that he had actually helped him after he had been convicted and jailed. He said that was because, had the municipal property not been acquired under the discount scheme, the old man could have been rendered homeless.
An investigation by the association of notaries in Gdańsk has ruled that the notarial deed signed by both Nawrocki and the pensioner was composed in accordance with the regulations. They also said that there was no requirement for either side to demonstrate how the money for the amount recorded in the sale was transferred.
Nawrocki faced a series of allegations about his past during the election campaign. He was accused of football hooliganism in his youth, connections with criminals at a boxing club he trained at and of pimping when he worked as a security guard at the Grand Hotel in Sopot, near Gdańsk, which he denied.
He was suing Onet over publications alleging that he was engaged in pimping but has admitted that in his youth he took part in some fights between football fans.
He denied any wrongdoing with regard to the acquisition of the apartment.
Shortly before the first round of the presidential election, Nawrocki donated the apartment to a charitable organisation on the proviso that it allowed the pensioner to remain its tenant.
Nawrocki, who should become president in early August when the second and final term of the PiS-aligned incumbent Andrzej Duda ends, won the run-off ballot on June 1. He polled 10,7 million votes (51 per cent) beating Prime Minister Donald Tusk centre-left government’s candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 10,3 million votes (49 per cent).
Despite the clear margin of victory, protests have been lodged with the Supreme Court, which is responsible for validating the result.
