Former Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński and his deputy from the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party were sentenced to two years in prison on Wednesday (Dec.20) for abuse of power in previous posts, PAP news agency reported. President Duda met Kamiński and Wąsik on Wednesday evening and said his 2015 pardon had been executed in accordance with the law and remained effective.
In 2015, weeks after PiS 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.
Lawyers questioned whether Duda could have pardoned Kaminski 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 the president was within his rights to pardon him, 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.
On Wednesday, a Warsaw appeals court sentenced 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, PAP news agency reported.
The verdict is final and means Kaminski, seen as close to PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński, and Wąsik will probably lose their parliamentary mandates. PiS lost power to an alliance of pro-European parties after Oct. 15 elections.
There was no immediate sign that Kamiński or Wąsik were set to be imprisoned, with both men rejecting the appeals court's decision.
"This is a verdict that we do not acknowledge and there are no grounds for terminating our mandates," Kamiński said at a press conference.
"We do not feel guilty or convicted, we were pardoned by Mr President," Wąsik added.
Critics said Kamiński and his associates had pursued corruption with excessive zeal when in office, using methods they said sometimes circumvented laws and also hounded innocent people. Kaminski argued that corruption was a blight on Polish democracy that had to be tackled thoroughly.
President Duda met Kamiński and Wąsik on Wednesday evening.
"The 2015 pardon was executed in accordance with the law, which was confirmed by the Constitutional Tribunal, and remains in legal force," his office said on social media platform X after the meeting.
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters