Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk backs decision to imprison opposition MPs

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday in his first television interview since coming to power in December, that the controversial imprisonment of two opposition MPs and removal of their parliamentary mandates must be upheld.

“The state will act in accordance with both court judgments and regulations. The mandates of Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik, in accordance with the court's decision, confirmed by the decision of the Speaker of the Parliament, have expired,” Tusk told commercial television station TVN24. “Therefore, there is no room for negotiations here.”

After winning elections on Oct. 15 and forming a government in December, the three-way coalition headed by the Civic Platform (PO) leader Donald Tusk has moved to undo its predecessor’s reforms of the judiciary and media, and the outgoing Law and Justice (PiS) party has sought to resist such moves, helped by the PiS-connected president, Andrzej Duda.

In a case that appears to test Tusk’s resolve and potentially the unity of his coalition, speaker of the lower house, Szymon Holownia, last week stripped two MPs from PiS who have also been sentenced to two years in prison for a scandal when they were in charge of Poland’s internal security service (CBA).

In March 2015, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik, former head of the CBA and his deputy, respectively, were sentenced to three years in prison and handed a 10-year ban on holding public positions for exceeding their powers in connection with the CBA's action regarding the so-called land scandal.

The case returned with the Supreme Court's ruling in June, when the Criminal Chamber, after cassation appeals filed by lower order prosecutors, overturned the discontinuance of the case in March 2016 by the District Court in Warsaw.

On Dec. 20, the District Court in Warsaw sentenced Kaminski and Wasik to two years of imprisonment. On Jan. 9, the police detained Kaminski and Wasik, who were hiding out at the Presidential Palace at the time.

Duda announced Thursday that he was initiating pardon proceedings against the two PiS politicians and asked the Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar to release them from prison for the duration of the proceedings. Bodnar confirmed Friday that he had received the president's letter.

Asked in the interview if he was surprised by the president's move, Tusk replied: “There is no time or place to feel surprised here. I am leading the Polish government in very challenging times. I am talking here about the internal situation, an example of which is the confusion surrounding the arrest and pardon of Kaminski and Wasik,” he said.

“For me, as the prime minister of the government, it is very important that - also in this specific context - Poland becomes a state of law again, which means that everyone should act according to their competences. I have nothing to say about the president’s attempts to pardon them for obvious reasons - I do not have such competences,” he added.

PiS-initiated protests in Warsaw on Jan. 11 heard calls for the release of what PiS calls “political prisoners.”

Kaminski, former head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, said Jan. 8 that "only physical violence" would prevent him from participating in the next session of parliament.