Contested Supreme Court chamber overrides parliament speaker's decision stripping sentenced MP of mandate

On December 21, 2023, a Warsaw appeals court sentenced Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, his former deputy at the interior ministry, to two years in prison and two other officials of the anticorruption office to one year.

The verdict is final and means Kamiński, seen as close to PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, and Wąsik will probably be removed from their positions as members of parliament. PiS lost power to an alliance of pro-European parties after Oct. 15 elections.

In 2015, weeks after the PiS party came to power, President Andrzej Duda issued a pardon to Kamiński who had been found guilty of abuse of power while serving as head of the anti-corruption agency. The pardon allowed him to become a minister.

There was no immediate sign that Kamiński or Wąsik were set to be imprisoned. Both men disagreed with the appeals court's decision, contending the pardon precluded the sentences.

Lawyers questioned whether Duda could have pardoned Kamiński before a court issued a final ruling in his case, and opposition politicians have said his decision was political.

The Constitutional Tribunal, which critics say was politicised under PiS, ruled in June last year that the president had been within his rights to pardon Kamiński, saving the PiS government from a potentially damaging dismissal in an election year.

Poland's Supreme Court ruled days later that the abuse of power case should be reopened.

Following the final court decision regarding Kamiński and Wąsik, Sejm Speaker Szymon Hołownia, on Dec. 21, ordered their MP mandates be revoked.

The two lawmakers had protested against Hołownia's decision and their appeals were sent on Wednesday, Jan. 3, to the Supreme Court's Labour and Social Security Law Chamber. Judicial panels were assigned to each case and closed-door sessions were scheduled for Jan. 10.

A spokesman for the chamber, Maciej Brzózka, informed on Thursday morning that Judge Romuald Dalewski, who was supposed to process Wąsik's case together with two other judges, had individually decided to refer the case to the Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber - a contested body which critics claim is illegal and not a court.

Furthermore, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that said the Extraordinary Review Chamber is not a court under the EU law. This was the main reason why Hołownia had referred Kamiński's and Wąsik's cases to the Labour Chamber in the first place, as it does not raise such concerns.

Brzózka then announced that a panel of three Extraordinary Review Chamber justices - Maria Szczepaniec, Marek Dobrowolski and Aleksander Stępkowski - had decided to revoke Szymon Hołownia's decision stripping Wąsik of his parliamentary mandate.

Kamiński's appeal against Hołownia's decision so far remains in the Labour Chamber, which on Jan. 10 will most likely process Wąsik appeal as well. This is turn might lead to a situation in which there will be two separate rulings in one case.

"In my opinion, the Extraordinary Review Chamber is not a court and I won't be sending any case files to the Extraordinary Review Chamber," Judge Piotr Prusinowski, chief of the Labour Chamber, told TVN24.

"We are dealing with an absolutely unprecedented situation," Hołownia said later on Thursday, adding that, to his best knowledge, his decision revoking the two lawmakers' mandate should not raise any concerns.

The Sejm speaker also said he was waiting for a reply from the Labour Chamber as this was the chamber he had addressed. "Once I have received the Labour Chamber's decision, I will have a substance to make decisions."