Fraud Puts Poland's Star Film Boss in Jail

Poland's star film producer, Lew Rywin, was sentenced to 30 months in jail yesterday after being found guilty of fraud in the country's worst corruption case in 15 years of democracy, a scandal that helped to bring down the centre-left government of prime minister Leszek Miller.

The judges cleared the government and senior political figures of blame, finding that Rywin acted alone in seeking a $17.5m (£9.8m) bribe to influence new media laws that would enable Poland's most successful media company to buy a national television station. A parliamentary investigation this month that also cleared the government was widely viewed as a whitewash.

Yesterday's verdict was expected to reinforce widespread public disgust with a political class seen as corrupt and money-grubbing.

Rywin co-produced Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List and Roman Polanski's The Pianist, both Oscar winners. In the summer of 2002 he approached the editor-in-chief of Poland's biggest and best daily newspaper, Adam Michnik, the veteran anti-communist dissident, claiming he was acting as an intermediary for "the group holding power" - a phrase that has since entered the Polish language as a catchall term of notoriety meaning a corrupt governing elite.

The newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza's parent company, Agora, was lobbying hard for changes to legislation drafted by the Miller government that would have prevented it bidding for the TV station Polsat.

Mr Michnik taped Rywin making the offer - that the bill would be amended to suit Agora in return for of $17.5m.

Mr Michnik waited six months before publishing the tapes in his newspaper, triggering a colossal crisis for the Miller government, which climaxes this weekend when the prime minister resigns a day after Poland becomes a member of the European Union.

A parliamentary commission of inquiry was established into the corruption allegations. The televised proceedings attracted a huge audience, burying political careers and making new political stars. But this month, in a 5-4 verdict, the commission cleared the government of any involvement in the Rywin scam.

Parallel to the commission, Rywin has been in the dock since December on charges of fraud. "I am innocent. I repeat, I am innocent," he said last week. He said he had been framed by the Agora management, that he was drunk at the time of the meeting with Mr Michnik, and that the tapes had been manipulated.

Mr Michnik, a hero of the Solidarity anti-communist movement and an influential figure in the Warsaw establishment, also faced criticism because he withheld the tapes for six months.

He said he did this because the revelations were so incendiary for the Miller government, at the time engaged in delicate negotiations on Poland's EU entry.

The prime minister testified in the court case, denying all involvement. Last week the prosecution conceded that it had been unable to prove that Rywin was working in cahoots with government officials.