Poland’s prosecution service has asked the President of the European Parliament to waive the immunity of two Polish Conservative PiS MEPs so they can face trial in Warsaw.
The case regards Mariusz Kamiński, interior minister in the previous PiS government, and his former deputy, Maciej Wąsik, allegedly taking part in a parliamentary vote after being sentenced in a disputed case dating back to their time as government officials.
Kamiński and Wąsik were convicted in 2015 for their part in a sting operation when they headed the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. They received a pardon from President Andrzej Duda later that year, despite the fact that their case was still pending an appeal.
That was challenged by one of the chambers of the Polish Supreme Court (SN) and the case was returned to the courts. There, Kamiński and Wąsik were again convicted and sentenced to two years in prison and given a five-year ban on holding public office. As a result, both were automatically barred from being MPs.
President Duda’s pardon, though, was upheld by Poland’s constitutional court (TK), as valid. That was based on the fact that the Constitution does not limit a president’s power of pardon to convicts only and that the two politicians were still MPs at the time.
In early January this year, the current government issued a warrant for the arrest of Kamiński and Wąsik, arguing they were no longer MPs and that they had to serve their prison sentences. The pair were detained while awaiting a meeting with Duda in the head of state’s chancellery.
In prison, the two men went on hunger strike in mid-January and, amid demonstrations, Duda agreed to a request from the wives of the two PiS politicians and re-issued the pardon so they could be freed.
Despite that, the ruling majority government under Prime Minister Donald Tusk would not agree to the mens’ reinstatement as MPs. It was claimed the law states that a parliamentary mandate expires on the day of a conviction and a pardon does not revoke it.
Kamiński and Wąsik later won seats in the European Parliament in June’s elections and thus acquired European parliamentary immunity.
Poland’s prosecution service is still pursuing the two men for allegedly taking part in a parliamentary vote the day after they were convicted – in defiance of the Speaker’s ruling that their mandates had expired.
They were charged over the matter on April 18. As a result of that, a motion has been filed with the European Parliament to lift their immunity.
According to a National Prosecution Service statement: “Adam Bodnar, the Prosecutor General and justice minister, on July 29 petitioned the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola for the EP’s permission to bring to justice two Polish MEPs, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wąsik.”
The statement then detailed the precise offences alleged to have been committed by the two men.
“The collected evidence has made it possible to ascertain that, despite a ban, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wąsik exercised their MP mandates as they took part in a Sejm [lower house of parliament] sitting on December 21, 2023, and in some votes, as well as in a meeting of the Sejm Administration and Internal Affairs Committee on December 28, 2023,” the prosecution service statement alleged.
Poland’s press agency (PAP) on July 29 cited Dariusz Joński, an MEP from with Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO) party, saying that the EP’s Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) will review the prosecutor general’s request in September, after the summer recess. It added that there were likely to be more such requests for the lifting of immunity against PiS MEPs in the future.
Tusk’s ruling coalition has, since coming to power in December last year, launched a number of indictments against PiS politicians involved in the previous government, leading to accusations of a vendetta and witch hunt.
This was the line taken by Kamiński.
In a recent social media post he said: “A few days ago I spoke in the EP highlighting the [alleged] human rights and rule-of-law abuses committed by Donald Tusk and his justice minister Adam Bodnar.
“The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is currently reviewing my complaint against my forced feeding during my stay in prison. Now minister Bodnar has answered me by attempting to prosecute me for voting in parliament where I was obliged to represent my constituents.
“These are actions which prove that the prosecution service is now highly politicised , but that will not stop me from speaking out. I will not be silenced!,” Kamiński insisted.
The European Parliament will now have to decide whether to lift the mens’ immunity in what is a political case involving the Polish domestic legal interpretation of the status of Kamiński and Wąsik as Polish parliamentarians at any given moment.
It may be that since both are part of the opposition European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the EP, they are vulnerable if the ruling coalition of the European People’s Party, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Renew votes en bloc against their immunity.
