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Zbigniew WassermannPolish politician
Date of Birth: 17.09.1949
Country:  Poland |
Content:
Early Life and Education
Zbigniew Wassermann was a Polish politician born in Kraków, Poland. He completed his secondary education at the IX Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. Zygmunta Wróblewskiego in Kraków in 1968. In 1972, he graduated with a law degree from the Jagiellonian University.
Legal Career
Upon graduating, Wassermann began his career in the prosecutor's office. From 1972-1975, he served as Prosecutor of the Powiat Prosecutor's Office in Chrzanów and Jaworzno. From 1975-1984, he worked in the Brzesko District Prosecutor's Office. In 1984, he moved to Kraków, where he worked as Prosecutor of the Kraków-Krowodrza District Prosecutor's Office until 1989. From 1989-1991, he served as deputy regional prosecutor of Kraków and was a member of a commission responsible for verifying the officers of the Polish security service (SB) in Kraków.
After a brief hiatus, Wassermann returned to his legal career in 1993, when Zbigniew Dyka, his former colleague from the 1980s, became Minister of Justice. He was appointed as Prosecutor of the Appellate Prosecutor's Office in Kraków and became its press secretary.
Political Career
Wassermann's political career began in the ranks of the Law and Justice party (PiS). He was elected to the Sejm (lower house of the Polish parliament) in the 2001 elections. He served on the Committee on Justice and Human Rights (as deputy chairman) and the Committee on Secret Services (as chairman). In 2004, he became deputy chairman of the Inquiry Committee on the PKN Orlen Case.
Wassermann was re-elected to the Sejm in the 2005 parliamentary elections. On October 31, 2005, he was appointed Member of the Council of Ministers (minister without portfolio) and coordinator of secret services in the government of Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz. He retained this position in the government of Jarosław Kaczyński, who was appointed on July 14, 2006. On September 7, 2007, he was dismissed and appointed State Secretary for Secret Services in the Prime Minister's Office. On September 11, he returned to his former ministerial position.
Wassermann won a third term in parliament in the 2007 parliamentary elections. From November 2009, he was a member of the Inquiry Committee on the so-called "gambling scandal." In December, he was expelled from the committee due to a planned interrogation as a witness. After giving his testimony in January 2010, he was reinstated to the commission by a decision of the Sejm.
Death and Legacy
On April 10, 2010, Zbigniew Wassermann tragically died in a plane crash near Smolensk, Russia, along with President Lech Kaczyński and other members of the Polish delegation. He was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta on April 16, 2010. Wassermann was laid to rest in the cemetery in Krakow's Bielany district on April 20, 2010. A commemorative plaque was unveiled in his honor on ul. Braterska in Kraków later that year.
