Political power struggle – Poland: Police arrest politicians after escaping into the presidential palace – News

  • In Poland, President Andrzej Duda received two politicians in the presidential palace who were due to begin serving two-year prison sentences on Tuesday.
  • The politicians, who like Duda belong to the national conservative PiS party, were convicted of abuse of office.
  • In the evening, the two delinquent politicians were arrested, the police said.

Actually, Poland’s former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former State Secretary Maciej Wasik should have started their prison sentences on Tuesday. But when police officers searched their apartments, they came up empty: the two MPs from the replaced ruling party PiS, who had been legally convicted of abuse of office, had flown out.

A little later, a post from the Presidential Office on Platform They stayed there for several hours until they were arrested.

Conflict escalates

The incident brings the power struggle between the voted-out government and the new Polish government to a head. The conflict could turn into a national crisis for the EU and NATO country. A parliamentary session originally planned for Wednesday was postponed until next week due to the chaotic situation.

The new Prime Minister Donald Tusk threatened Duda and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski that they would be held responsible for “sabotage of the constitution”. He also warned that the incident would lead Poland to a “very dangerous situation.” The actions targeted the foundations of the state.

Legend:

Opposition supporters in Poland protest in front of the presidential palace against the arrest of the two PiS politicians.

Keystone/EPA/Radek Pietruszka

In the meantime, it looked as if wanted PiS politicians had found protection in President Duda’s palace. In the afternoon, Kaminski and Wasik spoke up in the courtyard. «We are not hiding. At the moment we are with Poland’s president until evil loses,” said Kaminski. He didn’t say how long they planned to stay there.

In the evening the police entered the area and arrested the politicians. According to Polish media reports, Duda is said to have left the building beforehand.

Pardoned by Duda

The case of the two PiS politicians has a long history. Duda originally pardoned the two in a case of abuse of office. Last June, a court overturned the pardon.

The conviction and the pardon in detail


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In 2015, the two PiS politicians were sentenced in the first instance to three years in prison for abuse of office. The reason was an affair uncovered in 2007, in which the anti-corruption agency, then headed by Kaminski, was said to have deliberately staged a corruption case in order to discredit the then Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper. Kaminski and Wasik appealed the verdict.

In the same year, immediately after the PiS came to power, Duda pardoned Kaminski and Wasik in a controversial decision. Experts questioned the legality, as pardons are only intended for cases that have gone through all judicial levels.

Last June, the Supreme Court overturned the presidential pardon of Kaminski and Wasik. According to the reasons for the verdict, only those who have been legally convicted can be pardoned.

Wasik and Kaminski had to face the trial again. At the end of December, the Warsaw District Court sentenced her to two years in prison. The court also ordered that both PiS politicians should not hold public office for five years and should lose their parliamentary mandate.

Duda had emphasized several times in the past few days that, in his opinion, the pardon continued to apply – but leading constitutional lawyers in Poland saw it differently. Both politicians had announced that they wanted to continue to fulfill their mandate as representatives and appear at parliamentary sessions.

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