Polish lawmaker implicated in sex scandal suspended party membership

Stanislaw Lyzwinski, deputy leader of the Poland's co-ruling Self-Defence party, on Wednesday announced suspension of his party membership pending the outcome of inquiries into an allegation that he demanded sex from an employee in exchange for a job.

In the first comments since the alleged scandal was reported on Monday, he denounced it as total rubbish, saying "I have not had any sexual relations with her or any other woman from the office," the PAP news agency reported.

Lyzwinski also rejected being the father of her child and said he would agree to a paternity test and fully cooperate with prosecutors as they investigate.

Prosecutors launched an investigation on Monday after one of Poland's leading daily newspapers Gazeta Wyborcza published an interview with a woman who said she had been given a job in 2001 in return for sex with the deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper.

Aneta Krawczyk claimed that she was forced to have sex in 2001 with Lepper in order to get a job in the office of party member Lyzwinski, whom she said she was also required to sleep with.

Lepper, one of the two deputy prime ministers and agriculture minister as well as the leader of the Self-Defence party, which is a member of the ruling coalition and a major ally of the prime minister, strongly denied the accusation.

Lepper has said that the allegations were "totally untrue," and described them as a "provocation" meant to destroy his political career and bring down the government.

Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Tuesday that he would dismiss Lepper if prosecutors confirmed an allegation that he had given a job to a woman in return for sex.

"I naturally see no possibility of cooperating with people who have committed such deeds," Kaczynski told state radio on Tuesday.

Kaczynski's Law and Justice party formed the majority government coalition with Self-Defense and the League of Polish Families (LPR).

Source: Xinhua