Prosecutor's refusal to open an investigation
This section contains my full letter to the National Prosecutor’s Office of 7 January 2025, which is a response to the reasoning of the ruling of 3 July 2024 issued by Prosecutor Elżbieta Ochońska-Wróbel (District Prosecutor’s Office Kraków-Podgórze, ref. 4135-1.Ds.96.2022) discontinuing the investigation. Below: a brief summary of the prosecutor’s ruling, then the full text of my letter.
Ruling of Prosecutor Elżbieta Ochońska-Wróbel discontinuing the investigation
Prosecutor Elżbieta Ochońska-Wróbel, having reviewed the materials, on the basis of art. 17 § 1 pts 1 and 2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, discontinued the investigation in seven (I–VII) threads concerning NCN Director Zbigniew Błocki, Prof. Marcin Drąg, and NCN Expert Panels. The reasoning qualifies my notification as “probabilistic”, doubts the credibility of recordings (claiming they were made in a state of “agitation”), treats Director Błocki’s words from 29 May 2020 as a “suggestion”, and concludes there is no evidence Prof. Drąg handed or promised Director Błocki any financial benefit.
My letter to the National Prosecutor’s Office of 7 January 2025 — response to Prosecutor Elżbieta Ochońska-Wróbel’s reasoning
The full text of my letter is below — not as a link, but embedded into the page so any reader can see how I respond, point by point, to the reasoning of the discontinuation. The letter relates to ref. 4135-1.Ds.96.2022. The original Polish version of this letter is available for preview/download below.
Subject: ruling discontinuing the investigation conducted by Prosecutor Elżbieta Ochońska-Wróbel of the District Prosecutor’s Office Kraków-Podgórze, Kraków
I demand that the investigation into the blackmail by the Director of the National Science Centre and other irregularities at NCN in Kraków be reopened.
I previously asked you to oversee the investigation conducted by the Kraków-Podgórze District Prosecutor’s Office regarding blackmail, nepotism and cronyism at the National Science Centre (NCN), as I feared that influential figures connected to “Polish science” would attempt to sweep this matter under the rug. The investigation was discontinued; the discontinuation was supported by manipulated or fabricated evidence and biased arguments.
1. Why I feared the investigation would not be fair
The very circumstances of the act committed by the NCN Director Zbigniew Błocki resembled mafia-style settling of scores, and involved high-ranking figures from the world of Polish science. Less than a year ago (2024), Minister of Science Dariusz Wieczorek replied that the matter “concerns the past, when Błocki was Director” and “the NCN Council membership has changed by 50% in 2024” — as if that resolved the matter of the blackmail.
2. The Kraków-Podgórze prosecutor’s refusal to investigate the NCN Director’s blackmail
The reasoning of the discontinuation displays a peculiar approach to evidence: it generated a non-existent reality (claiming I had accused Prof. Marcin Drąg of bribing Zbigniew Błocki — I never made such a claim), questioned the recordings without listening to them, applied argumentum ad personam against me, and ignored the documented blackmail by a State Official.
3. Pattern of irregularities at NCN — the data
The 2019 jump in appeals-granted awards (26 vs. average 10/year) coincided with awards to spouses of NCN Discipline Coordinators. After my whistleblowing: 2020 — 0; 2021 — 0; 2022 — 2; 2023 — 2; 2024 — 0. From 10/year historically to 0.8/year after I exposed it.
4. Conclusion
I demand the reopening of the investigation and that the National Prosecutor’s Office exercise oversight: ref. 4135-1.Ds.96.2022.
Yours faithfully,
Dr Witold Kilarski