For the second time, the Polish president pardoned Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik, the imprisoned representatives of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party - Andrzej Duda himself announced his decision at a press conference on Tuesday.

The head of state made his announcement in the presence of the wives of the incarcerated and called on the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Adam Bodnar to implement his decision immediately. In his appeal, the head of state also referred to the deteriorating health of Mariusz Kaminski, who is on hunger strike. Andrzej Duda was able to close the amnesty process he started on January 11 in the case of Kaminski and Wasik after Adam Bodnar returned to him the dossier of the convicts on Tuesday.

The president recalled:

already in 2015, he pardoned Kaminski and Wasik, who were convicted of abuse of office as former heads of the anti-corruption office. At that time, the head of state acted on the basis of one of the provisions of the Polish constitution. Since Duda considers his 2015 decision to be valid - which position was confirmed three times by the Polish Constitutional Court - he initiated the second clemency procedure in a different way, based on the criminal code.

In such cases, the public prosecutor's opinion is a prerequisite for the act of pardon, although the opinion is not binding on the head of state. On Tuesday, Adam Bodnar suggested that Andrzej Duda should not use his right of pardon in his opinion forwarded to the head of state and in the submission attached to the case file. At his press conference, Duda criticized the fact that the Attorney General did not comply with his request and did not take advantage of the possibility of interrupting the execution of the sentence even after the presidential pardon procedure was launched on January 11.

The family of Mariusz Kaminski announced on Tuesday morning that the hunger-striking representative is being force-fed with a stomach tube in the prison hospital. As is known, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik were arrested on January 9 in the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, after the Warsaw District Court sentenced them to two years in prison in the renewed proceedings in their case at the end of December.

Previously, the Supreme Court questioned the validity of the 2015 presidential pardon. On Tuesday night, Kaminski and Wasik were released from two prisons in the Mazovia Voivodeship.

In the live broadcast of the conservative private news channel TV Republika, it was seen that their wives, a crowd of sympathizers and several leading PiS politicians were waiting for the deputies in front of the prison. Kaminski got into the car leaning on his wife and former Senate President Stanislaw Karczewski. Before that, in a short speech, he stated:

"I'm ready for the next fight". "Mr. Holownia, Mr. Tusk, we will meet soon," the opposition politician sent to the President of the Sejm and the Prime Minister. Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on the X interface: "the president used his right to pardon criminals - this time properly". "That is all"

he added.

MTI

Featured Image: Opposition protesters protest outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, where former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and former Deputy Interior Minister Maciej Wasik were arrested during the evening on January 9, 2024. Kaminski and Wasik, the representatives of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, were stripped of their mandate by the current speaker citing a court verdict in a criminal case, which according to President Andrzej Duda is illegal, because he had previously granted the two politicians a presidential pardon. MTI/EPA-PAP/Radek Pietruszka