Warsaw (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Polish Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar urged the European Parliament to lift the immunity of two opposition MEPs, Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, to face charges of abusing power and violating a public office ban.
Polish Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar, who also serves as justice minister of Poland, has urged the European Parliament to lift the immunity of two MEPs from Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party so they can encounter charges of not conceding with a ban on holding public office.
What Are the Charges Against Kamiński and Wąsik?
The politicians in query are ex-interior minister Mariusz Kamiński and his deputy Maciej Wąsik who have been at the heart of a long-running legal quarrel, which included them briefly being detained earlier this year before accepting a pardon from PiS-aligned President Andrzej Duda.
Those prison sentences were passed down by a court in December when the pair were discovered guilty of abusing their powers while driving Poland’s Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA). The court also barred them from holding public office for five years.
Why Did Bodnar Request to Lift MEPs’ Immunity?
Despite this, the pair persisted in participating in the activities of the Polish parliament, for which they were apprehended in April. But subsequently, they were elected to represent PiS in the EU Parliament, giving them legal immunity.
Poland’s national prosecutor’s office reported that Bodnar had submitted a request to the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, “for consent to bring criminal proceedings against” Kamiński and Wąsik. Stating that the pair have already been charged, the prosecutor’s office stated that it is now “necessary to supplement the brought charges against the MEPs and then refer the indictment to court” so that they can encounter trial.
What Role Does the European Parliament’s Legal Committee Play?
EU Parliament President Metsola will refer the Polish prosecutor’s appeal to the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee, which will produce a proposal. Whether or not to lift Kamiński and Wąsik’s immunity will then be determined by a simple majority vote in the parliament. Darius Joński, an MEP from Poland’s main ruling group, Civic Platform, said the Polish Press Agency (PAP) that the European Parliament is likely to start reviewing the request in September.
Why Were Kamiński and Wąsik Previously Pardoned?
Kamiński and Wąsik, however, demand that the sentences handed to them in December are not reasonable because they were previously acquitted by Duda in 2015. Last year, the Supreme Court discovered that pardon to itself be frail but the Constitutional Tribunal – a body widely considered as being under the influence of PiS – ruled that the Supreme Court did not have the privilege to make that ruling.
The pair press that they are victims of “political revenge” by the administration that replaced PiS in December. In answer to Bodnar’s request to Metsola, Kamiński wrote on X that “this is yet more evidence of the extreme politicisation of the prosecutor’s office”. “We live in an authoritarian state,” Wąsik said. “Bodnar’s actions are illegal.”
