Lawmaker held on sex charges

WARSAW, Poland – A Polish lawmaker was arrested Sunday on charges of rape and other sexual misconduct, his lawyer said.

A court ordered the arrest of Stanislaw Lyzwinski, a lawmaker from the Self-Defense Party, after prosecutors linked him to a sex-for-work scandal, his lawyer Wieslaw Zurawski said on TVN24 television. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors have brought seven charges against Lyzwinski including rape. He is also accused of taking sexual advantage of a party employee and three other women and pushing the party employee to have an abortion, which is illegal in heavily Roman Catholic Poland.

The allegations against Lyzwinski and other top politicians from his party surfaced in December 2006, when the party employee claimed she had sex in 2001 with party leader Andrzej Lepper in exchange for a job.

The woman has said that to keep her post, she was required to sleep with Lyzwinski.

Both Lyzwinski and Lepper denied the allegations and suggested the woman was pushed into making the claims by others, whom they have not identified.