“You should be an MP”, a parliamentarian told Danuta Olewnik-Cieplinska. She heard these words after her dramatic address to the parliamentary Justice and Human Rights Committee, writes the weekly Wprost.

A sister of a wealthy businessman’s son, who was kidnapped in 2001 and later brutally murdered, she has become an informal leader of a new movement – a movement of disobedience to the mafia.

She did not let herself be intimidated, discouraged and discredited.

The investigation into Krzysztof Olewnik’s kidnapping and killing has become a symbol of indolence, shameful errors and corrupt links between the police and the criminals.

Danuta Olewnik-Cieplinska fought for the life of her beloved brother for five years.

She never gave up and is now seen by helpless people as their spokesperson.

They are craftsmen, businessmen, middle-class representatives, who became wealthy through hard work and then started to be blackmailed by the mafia and corrupt administration.

Already now, the Olewnik family have established a foundation named after the late Krzysztof Olewnik to help victims of crime as well as those who do not know how to fight for their rights.

The family is considering starting a campaign to prohibit giving ransom to kidnappers, a law which led to a dramatic decrease in kidnappings for money in Italy, says Wprost.

Mafia-defying woman struggles to make a change – 02.05.2008 – Weekly press review by Krystyna Kołosowska – http://www.polskieradio.pl/zagranica/news/artykul81537_Mafia_defying_woman_struggles_to_make_a_change.html

The latest disagreement between the largest opposition party and government stems from a TV programme broadcast by the private TVN channel on Tuesday night, revealing that in 2003, when the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) government was in power, Poland signed a contract for gas supply with a Hungarian company Eural-Trans-Gaz.

The company was managed by a henchmen of a Russian mafioso Semion Mogilevich who is believed to have controlled the largest Russian mafia syndicate in the world and who was arrested end of January.

As a result, PiS has requested PM Donald Tusk to provide information on the status of Poland’s energy security.

Former deputy minister of economy Paweł Poncyljusz (PiS) reminded that the contract with Eural-Trans-Gazem has been previously mentioned in the press in the context of the company’s alleged links with the Russian mafia.

In the opinion of PiS MPs, public opinion should be informed if the Internal Security Agency (ABW) informed the government about the press allegations.

Paweł Poncyljusz has also reminded that the US ambassador to Kiev, Ukraine sent an official letter on the subject of Mogilevich and Eural-Trans-Gaz to Warsaw in the past.

Polish mafia gas supply scandal – 06.02.2008 10:44 – http://www.polskieradio.pl/thenews/business/?id=75241 – (mj)