Mayor of Polish city detained in corruption case linked to private university

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The mayor of Wrocław, Poland’s third-largest city, has been detained as part of an ongoing investigation into alleged corruption and other irregularities at a private university, which has been accused of selling diplomas, including to many public officials.

Mayor Jacek Sutryk – a political independent but who is aligned with Poland’s current nationally ruling coalition – holds a diploma from the university but has previously insisted it was obtained in good faith.

“This morning, CBA [Central Anticorruption Bureau] agents, acting under prosecutor’s orders, detained the mayor of Wrocław in connection with alleged criminal activity and irregularities at Collegium Humanum,” said Jacek Dobrzyński, spokesperson for the security services.

Following procedural activities, Sutryk was transported to the prosecutor’s office in the city of Katowice, Dobrzyński added. He did not provide any additional information on the mayor’s detention or the reasons behind it.

A spokesman for the national prosecutor’s office, meanwhile, announced that “the mayor of Wrocław, Jacek Sutryk, will be charged in an investigation into irregularities at the former Collegium Humanum”, reports financial news website Money.pl. He also did not provide further details.

Later, the interior ministry confirmed that Sutryk had been detained “peacefully” at his home this morning.

Previously, prosecutors have alleged widespread corruption at the Warsaw-based Collegium Humanum, including the issuing of diplomas in exchange for bribes.

Their investigation has focused on irregularities related to MBAs, which are often required for individuals to hold certain roles, such as on the boards of state-owned companies.

Authorities estimate that thousands of counterfeit diplomas were issued and nore than 30 individuals have been charged so far in connection with the case.

In September, a politician from Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, Ryszard Czarnecki, and his wife were detained by the CBA and questioned by prosecutors in relation to the case.

Collegium Humanum, which was founded in 2018, has been shrouded in controversy since 2020, when media reports began to emerge that it was acting as a degree factory, providing MBAs to figures associated with the then-ruling PiS party.

It later also emerged that figures associated with the then-opposition Civic Platform (PO), which is now the main ruling party, also received degrees from the college.

Among them was Sutryk, who has served as mayor of Wrocław since 2018 and was re-elected for a second term earlier this year. In an interview with Radio Wrocław in March, before the elections, Sutryk claimed he obtained the diploma in good faith.

“I signed up normally, I paid normally with my money, not public money. Then, I passed the tests normally, which had to be passed according to the regulations. And I got this diploma,” he said, adding that those who may have been cheated by the university were “victims” rather than wrongdoers.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: MSWiA (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)​

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.