Police in Poland have arrested two legally convicted MPs from the replaced national-conservative ruling party PiS, who had previously sought protection in the presidential palace. The new head of government Donald Tusk accused President Andrzej Duda, who also belongs to the PiS party, of sabotage.
According to Polish media reports, the MPs were arrested in the presidential palace. Police in Warsaw confirmed the arrest of the two on platform X on Tuesday evening.
Duda had received former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his State Secretary Maciej Wasik at the presidential palace in the morning, while police were to take them to prison.
Politicians refused to go to jail
Both politicians were sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of office by a district court in Warsaw in December after an appeal and were due to serve their sentences.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had accused President Andrzej Duda of obstructing the capture of the two legally convicted MPs from the replaced national-conservative ruling party PiS. “Mr President, my fervent appeal for the well-being of the Polish state: you must stop this spectacle. It will put us in a very dangerous situation,” Tusk said in Warsaw on Tuesday.
Head of government threatens Duda
Tusk warned that Duda and PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski would be held responsible for sabotaging the constitution and breaking the law. The arrested posed side by side with the head of state during a reception at the presidential palace on Tuesday, according to images published by Duda’s law firm on the X platform (formerly Twitter).
Police in Warsaw had previously confirmed that a court order had been received to transfer both politicians to prison. Images from TVN24 showed that police officers in front of the men’s houses apparently searched for the men in vain.
In the afternoon, Kaminski and Wasik appeared before the press in the courtyard of the presidential palace. Police searched the homes in the morning but found neither him nor Wasik, Kaminski said. “We don’t hide. Right now we stand with the Polish president until evil loses.”
The corrupt anti-corruption fighters?
The case of the two PiS politicians has a long history. In 2015, immediately after the PiS came to power, Duda pardoned Kaminski and Wasik in a controversial decision. Both had previously been sentenced at first instance to three years in prison for abuse of office.
The reason for the conviction was an affair that came to light in 2007, in which the anti-corruption agency, then led by Kaminski, allegedly deliberately orchestrated a corruption case to discredit then-Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper. Kaminski and Wasik appealed the verdict.
Last June, the Supreme Court overturned the presidential pardon of Kaminski and Wasik. According to the verdict, only those legally convicted can be pardoned. Both had to appear in court 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 be banned from holding public office for five years and lose their parliamentary mandates.
Source: Krone
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