Polish President Duda Pardons Political Prisoners AGAIN, Gets Them Released – Kasinski and Wasik Fight PM Tusk’s Government To Continue Work as MPs
The week in Poland was politically charged with the ongoing struggle between newly returned Prime Minister, the Euro-Globalist Donald Tusk, and Conservative President Andrzej Duda.
The main object of their struggle was the fate of two PiS party MPs that turned into political prisoners as they arrested INSIDE THE PRESIDENTIAL PALACE in an arbitrary move that led hundreds of thousands to the streets to protest.
PM Tusk has moved to rapidly dismantle PiS policies and to purge conservative officials, in an effort to dutifully follow Brussels’ directives.
But President Duda is having none of it, and on Tuesday (23) he pardoned AGAIN two MPs who were members of a former PiS government.
The two men, former interior minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik were then released from prison.
Reuters reported:
“They were jailed this month after being sentenced for abuse of power in their previous roles. Both men went on hunger strike, claiming to be “political prisoners”, and their jailing triggered large protests by tens of thousands of PiS supporters.
Duda, a PiS ally, had pardoned both politicians after they were first sentenced in 2015 but Poland’s Supreme Court deemed his move invalid, saying a presidential pardon could not be granted before a final ruling in the case was issued.”
The Supreme Court decided to reopen the case of Kaminski and Wasik, whereby they were sentenced, in December, to two years in prison.
Days after their imprisonment, Duda announced that he had started the process of pardoning them for a second time, as crowds protested their imprisonment.
“‘For me, they have always been pardoned, but taking into account the social unrest, I decided to initiate the (new) pardon proceedings’, Duda said in a statement. ‘I appeal to the justice minister for the immediate release of both gentlemen from prison’.”
After the duo was released, now the struggle between the country’s new pro-European Union government and conservative opposition is to decide whether they can remain lawmakers.
Associated Press reported:
“As the lower house of parliament, or Sejm, convened on Thursday, officials and experts were dived on whether two senior Law and Justice lawmakers, who served in the previous government, can attend the proceedings.
Parliament Speaker Szymon Holownia had stripped them of their mandates after they were convicted in December of abuse of power. They were released from prison on Tuesday, after President Andrzej Duda pardoned them and after spending two weeks behind bars.
Law and Justice and their ally Duda insist the two — former Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and his former deputy, Maciej Wąsik — may continue to sit in the Sejm. The two were not present at the session start on Thursday.”
Kamiński and Wąsik were first convicted in 2015 of ‘abuse of power and forging documents’ for actions taken back in 2007, during an earlier Law and Justice-led government. They were subsequently pardoned by President Duda.
In June 2023, Poland’s Supreme Court overturned the 2015 pardons and ordered a retrial.
Kamiński and Wąsik were convicted again, sentenced to two years in prison.
Now Duda has pardoned them again. The end?
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