On the evening of January 9, police entered the presidential palace in Warsaw and took into custody two Law and Justice deputies – ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wonsik.
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The politicians had been there since the morning and avoided arrest. Previously, the court sentenced politicians to two years in prison in the case of the so-called land scandal. Western media call the arrest a sharp escalation in the confrontation between the new and previous authorities.
After this, protests broke out in Warsaw near the presidential palace and the police station, where law enforcement officers took the politicians.
The president’s office said the police “humiliated the dignity of the Polish state by entering the palace and arresting the president’s guests.” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that the situation is unusual, because “there are no such instructions for the Prime Minister or the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on what to do in a situation where convicts should be in prison, but they are in the presidential palace.”
At the time of his arrest, Duda himself was in another official residence (Belvedere) at a meeting with the Belarusian opposition. When the president learned that law enforcement officers were arresting Kaminsky and Vonsik, he immediately went to the presidential palace.
However, as stated in the presidential office, the motorcade of the head of state was not immediately able to leave the Belvedere, because the exit was blocked by a city bus with its emergency lights on. The presidential office stated that this was a planned action against the president.
The Warsaw mayor’s office denied the accusations and said that the bus’s brake system was blocked and it could not move further, and the president’s motorcade left the residence across the sidewalk.
The opposition Law and Justice party says that Vonsik and Kaminsky are political prisoners, and the current government has violated the Constitution. Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Golovnya called the situation around politicians a “deep constitutional crisis”, and Tusk recalled the penalties threatened for harboring people wanted by the police.
Under the PiS government 2015-2023, Kaminsky was the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Vonsik was the Vice Minister in this ministry. They are considered as one of the implementers of illegal eavesdropping by Pegasus programming of the opposition for political purposes.
Yesterday, the facade of the presidential palace was illuminated with the faces of the detainees and the inscription “in solidarity with Kaminsky and Vonsik.”
It should be said that the case concerns the so-called land scandal that erupted in mid-2007. Kaminsky then headed the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), and Vonsik was his deputy. The SBA suspected the leader of the Self-Defense party and then-Deputy Minister Andrzej Lepper of corruption and prepared a corresponding special operation to show that he was taking bribes. The operation ended in fiasco, but Lepper lost his position. The media write that the case had political overtones.
2015 The Warsaw District Court sentenced Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wonsik to three years in prison for abuse of power and illegal operational activities in the framework of the “land scandal”. That same year, President Andrzej Duda pardoned the convicts. Kaminsky and Vonsik took senior positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration.
Taking into account the presidential pardon, the Voivodeship Court overturned the verdict of the trial court and closed the case.
However, a few years later, the Supreme Court ruled that the presidential pardon was invalid, because the verdict in the case had not entered into legal force, and sent the case for retrial. On December 20, 2023, the court found Kaminsky and Vonsik guilty and sentenced them to two years in prison. The politicians maintain their innocence. They are currently in prison, in separate cells. Kaminsky started a hunger strike.
Source: Racurs
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.