President pardons jailed former MPs, requests their immediate release
Poland's president has pardoned two former MPs jailed for abuse of power and requested that the justice minister release them from detention without delay.
On Tuesday, despite receiving a negative opinion on the proposed pardon from Adam Bodnar, the justice minister and prosecutor general, President Andrzej Duda announced later in the day that the men were pardoned of their conviction for abuse of power.
Mariusz Kaminski was the interior minister in the previous government. He and his deputy, Maciej Wasik, were sentenced to two years in prison last December for orchestrating a sting operation while heading the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau in 2007.
The two men were taken into custody in early January, and since then they have been on hunger strikes. Local media reported on Monday that Kaminski had been hospitalised due to deteriorating health.
"The procedure has been completed," Duda said of the pardoning process. "I want to say in relation to this that a decision regarding the right of pardon has been issued. Messrs Kaminski and Wasik are pardoned. I fully confirm this."
"I appeal to the minister of justice, the prosecutor general, for the immediate further processing of this matter, because we are sending the documents to the minister of justice, the prosecutor general, immediately for execution."
Duda said he was appealing for the men's immediate release on "humanitarian, humane and state grounds."
The men's pardon was politically charged as Duda had already issued a pardon in the case in 2015. However, the new government argued it was invalid as it was issued prior to a final verdict being delivered in the case. Duda and the two former MPs' supporters claim the original pardon is still binding. Despite the disagreement, Duda said on Sunday he would pardon the men again in order to "save them."
Following his announcement of the pardon, the president, an ally of the former ruling Law and Justice party of which the two men were MPs, went on to appeal for "a little decency in the compromising situation the Polish state finds itself in," going on to describe the situation as "just plain shameful." (PAP)
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