Duda says he will pardon jailed ex-ministers again
Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has said that he will pardon for the second time two senior politicians of the former ruling party Law and Justice (PiS), who were taken to prison on Tuesday after being convicted of abuse of power.
In December 2023, the former interior minister, Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison for masterminding an anti-corruption provocation in 2007 when they were heading the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA).
The December 2023 ruling, issued by Warsaw's Regional Court of the second instance, is final.
Back in March 2015 Kaminski and Wasik had already been sentenced to three years in prison in the same case but in November, 2015, after PiS came to power, Duda pardoned both men, allowing Kaminski to become interior minister.
But in June, 2023, following the Supreme Court's decision, the case returned to the docket after more than eight years.
After reopening the case, Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced in December to two years in prison. On Monday a court issued orders to jail both men and on Tuesday police entered Poland's presidential palace to detain the two and took them to prison.
On Thursday, Duda met with Kaminski's and Wasik's wives.
After the meeting, he said that "at the request of the ladies" he decided to initiate pardon proceedings for both PiS politicians.
"I want these proceedings to be carried out in accordance with all constitutional standards," Duda said.
"This will be a presidential procedure, he added.
In a Thursday statement to the media he said that Kaminski and Wasik were "the first political prisoners in Poland since 1989."
"I have no doubt that if someone is convicted and imprisoned for serving the Polish state, prosecuting corruption, also at the top of power, at the highest level of politics, someone who discovers and prosecutes scandals, such as the land or gambling scandal, this does not please many people who, especially today, hold prominent positions in Polish politics," Duda said.
He pointed out the "unusual by Polish standards, stunning speed of court action" in the Kaminski and Wasik case and to the "brutality of the authorities' actions." (PAP)
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