The centre-left majority in the European Parliament has voted to strip two Polish opposition Conservative (PiS) MEPs of immunity to face criminal charges brought by the centre-left Polish government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
One of them, Michał Dworczyk, is accused by prosecutors of using his private email, which was hacked, for government business when he was minister in the previous PiS administration.
The digital incident came in a suspected Russia-driven cyberattack in 2021, one of the biggest in recent years, that involved more than 100 email accounts of serving and former government officials.
Dworczyk said at the time of the hacking that some of the emails and information were stolen from mailboxes owned by him and his family and published on Telegram, while some were falsified
The other MEP, Daniel Obajtek, is accused of offences allegedly committed while he was CEO of Polish State energy giant Orlen.
Obajtek, who never hid his support for PiS and who later became a party MEP in the 2024, is accused of allegedly using Orlen funds for his private interests and engaging in illicit surveillance of opposition politicians.
Both politicians, who could face up to five years in prison if found guilty, have protested their innocence and accused the EP of consenting to their “political persecution” by the current Polish Government.
Responding to the EP’s decision yesterday, Dworczyk said the body had “once again shown that you cannot expect fair treatment if you are not part of the European People’s Party”. He was referring to the largest group in the EP of which Tusk was once leader and to which his party belongs.
He said the EP had “opened the path for Tusk’s gang to engage in further political repression” and called the accusations against him “absurd”.
He added it was the hackers who broke into his private email who should be pursued by the authorities rather than him, the victim of the crime.
Obajtek also accused the EP of “defending MEPs from left-wing parties” while “making it easier for Tusk’s party to pursue further political repression against me”. He said that made a mockery of the EP’s claims to want to “defend democratic values, human rights, and freedoms”.
When Tusk’s coalition replaced the PiS in office in December 2023, one of its central pledges was to hold to account PiS officials for alleged abuses of power and other crimes during the former ruling party’s eight years in power.
A raft of indictments has followed against PiS officials but, despite Poland’s parliament stripping PiS MPs of immunity, none have yet been heard in court, therefore no one has been convicted.
