WARSAW, Poland – A Polish court has sentenced a businessman and two waiters convicted in the illegal wiretapping of top Polish politicians in Warsaw restaurants to prison terms.
The court set a prison sentence of 2½ years to Marek Falenta, the businessman convicted of masterminding the wiretapping, and lesser sentences to two waiters involved. A third waiter must pay a fine.
The release of those tapes sparked a political scandal in 2014 that contributed to the loss of power last year of Civic Platform, the centrist party that governed Poland for eight years.
The recordings caught top members of the government of former Prime Minister Donald Tusk, now the head of the European Council, using crude language or making rough assessments of foreign allies. It led to the resignation of several senior officials.