Head of State
Poland’s president snubs government with pardon
Released from prison: Former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski is received by his wife and his supporters. photo
© Piotr Polak/PAP/dpa
After almost two weeks in custody, Poland’s former Interior Minister Kaminski and a former employee leave prison. President Duda, who comes from the same party, pardoned her.
After the release of two former members of the recently replaced government from prison, the signs are in Poland continues to argue. Former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former State Secretary Maciej Wasik from the national conservative ruling party PiS, which was voted out in October, left their prisons in the evening, as the PAP news agency reported. A few hours earlier, President Andrzej Duda, who comes from the ranks of the PiS, announced that he had pardoned the two politicians convicted of abuse of office for a second time.
According to a ruling, both PiS politicians will not be allowed to hold public office for five years and will lose their parliamentary mandate. However, the PiS does not recognize the court-ordered loss of parliamentary mandates. However, Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia, whose Third Way party is a coalition partner in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s center-left government, has already expelled both MPs. “Mr. Tusk, Mr. Holownia, we’ll see each other again soon,” said Wasik after his release.
The dispute over the fate of Kaminski and Wasik has already become a central point in the dispute between Tusk’s government and the PiS with its ally Duda in recent weeks. The PiS MPs were arrested and taken to prison on January 9th after initially seeking protection in the presidential palace. The PiS has since described the two as “political prisoners”. Kaminski went on hunger strike right at the start of his detention.
Long history – the case began in 2015
The case of the two PiS politicians has a long history. In 2015, immediately after PiS came to power, Duda pardoned both Kaminski and Wasik in a controversial decision. Both had previously been sentenced in the first instance to three years in prison for abuse of office. The reason for the conviction was an affair uncovered in 2007, in which the anti-corruption agency, then headed by Kaminski, was said to have deliberately orchestrated a corruption case in order to discredit the then Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper. Kaminski and Wasik appealed the verdict.
In June, the Supreme Court overturned the presidential pardon of Kaminski and Wasik. According to the verdict, only those who have been legally convicted can be pardoned. Both had to face the trial again. At the end of December, the Warsaw District Court sentenced her to two years in prison. The court also ordered the ban on holding office and the loss of his mandate.