Parliamentary security bars entry of ex-MPs
Parliamentary security guards have stopped two ex-MPs, who were found guilty of abuse of power in December and later pardoned by the president, from entering the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish parliament on Wednesday morning.
Michal Kaminski and Maciej Wasik, two former MPs who were imprisoned for abuse of power before being pardoned by President Andrzej Duda, can visit the Sejm, but cannot take part in parliamentary sessions, the house speaker's press officer said on Tuesday.
Despite that, on Wednesday morning, the politicians were trying to enter the Sejm building together with a group of their colleagues from the former ruling party, the socially-conservative Law and Justice (PiS).
Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the PiS leader, requested entrance for "MPs Kaminski and Wasik." In response, the guards invited them to the office where they could obtain "appropriate entry permits" that will allow them to enter the Sejm.
Sejm Speaker Szymon Holownia said the two could enter the parliament's premises as regular visitors but could not sit in the session hall as their parliamentary mandates had been revoked after they were sentenced in a criminal case.
Kaminski, the interior minister in Poland's previous government and his former deputy, 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 later pardoned by the president and released from custody.
Kaminski and Wasik have repeatedly insisted they are still MPs, citing a Supreme Court verdict in their favour, and claiming that attempts to strip them of their parliamentary rights were unlawful. The Supreme Court itself is divided on the issue, as a chamber favourable to PiS upheld Kaminski's and Wasik's claims, while another chamber said they were no longer MPs. (PAP)
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