Opposition leader vows retribution after charges levelled against him

Donald Tusk, leader of Poland's main opposition party, the centrist Civic Platform (PO), has said those who have brought charges against him will be held accountable for “every wrongdoing” they commit.

The website of the state-owned news channel TVP Info reported on Monday that the Warsaw prosecutors had launched an investigation into an alleged abuse of power by Tusk in 2014, when he was prime minister. The charges came after a convicted businessman, Marek Falenta, accused him of a breach of authority, citing an inspection carried out in a coal-trading company he co-owned.

PO lost the general election in 2015 to the conservative Law and Justice (PiS), which has been in power since.

"(Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Zbigniew) Ziobro and his prosecutors are carrying out an investigation against me in connection with an accusation that when I was prime minister I curbed imports of Russian coal," Tusk said in the south-eastern city of Rzeszow on Tuesday.

"They may try to portray me as a fugitive but, as we well remember, the movie ends well, and the hunters will be held accountable for every wrongdoing they have committed," Tusk said, making reference to The Fugitive, a 1993 Hollywood movie starring Harrison Ford.

Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, said that enforcement agencies and prosecutors were "independent from the office of the president," adding that "if there are grounds for them, investigations are launched."

"It's the duty of enforcement agencies and prosecutors to investigate such cases," Duda said while on a visit to Mongolia on Tuesday.

Warsaw prosecutors said in a statement issued later on Tuesday that they had "no plans to question Tusk... at the current stage."

"The Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw declares that media publications suggesting that the investigation is being carried out against Donald Tusk are untrue," the statement reads. "The investigation is in the case itself, and its purpose is to verify the circumstances indicated in the notification of a crime."

Tusk's PO is seen as the main threat to the ruling United Right coalition led by Law and Justice in the general election scheduled for this autumn.