Pardoned ex-minister vows to visit parliament on own terms
Mariusz Kaminski, the interior minister in Poland's previous government who was imprisoned for abuse of power before being pardoned by the president on Tuesday, has said he will visit parliament, but on his own terms rather than on those of the house speaker.
Kaminski and his former deputy, Maciej Wasik, were each sentenced to two years in prison in December 2023 for abuse of power while heading the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. But in a high-profile case, they were pardoned by the president earlier this week and released, ending a hunger strike they were staging in custody.
Szymon Holownia, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, the Sejm, has said the two men cannot take back their parliamentary seats as their convictions have nullified their mandates.
"We will certainly appear in the Sejm in the coming days, but on our terms, not Szymon Holownia's," Kaminski told the wpolsce.pl website. "We want to appear in the Sejm in a planned, very precise way."
Kaminski said that he and Wasik were still MPs, citing a Supreme Court verdict in their favour, and claiming that attempts to strip them of their parliamentary rights were unlawful. (PAP)
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