Kaczyński admits Poland purchased Pegasus spying software. Media reactions

The Associated Press (AP) reported in December that researchers from the Citizen Lab project at the University of Toronto had found that senator Krzysztof Brejza was hacked in 2019 using Pegasus software, during an election in which he was running the campaign of the largest opposition party.

According to Citizen Lab, Brejza was under surveillance 33 times during the 2019 parliamentary election campaign.

AP also reported that Citizen Lab found Ewa Wrzosek, a prosecutor critical of the government's judicial reforms, and Roman Giertych, a lawyer who has represented opposition figures, had had their phones hacked.

On December 29, Warsaw District Proscutor's Office refused to launch inquiry into the hacking of prosecutor Wrzosek's phone.

Fragments of Jarosław Kaczyński's interview for right-wing "Sieci" weekly were published on Friday. The PiS party chairman and security affairs deputy minister admitted that the Polish government had purchased Pegasus surveillance software. In his opinion, however, the question of using this system was another example of "making mountains out of molehills". Kaczyński also explained why Pegasus was purchased for money from the Justice Fund.

Czuchniowski and Kittel commented on PiS chairman's words in TVN24.

The unusual thing is that Kaczyński completely discarded the narrative his own government, which has been saying that either there's no Pegasus at all, or someone else was spying on opposition members, or resorted to better and worse jokes about gaming console from the 1990s," Wojciech Czuchnowski told TVN24.

He added that "all this has been discarded today with Kaczyński's declaration that we do have Pegasus, we are proud of it, and we're using in accordance with the law".

"Superwizjer" journalist Bertold Kittel also spoke about the comments regarding the Pegasus case made by various United Right politicians. "I think they have manipulated public opinion deliberately. It was all about making people believe that it isn't a serious issue," he added.

Both journalists also commented on Kaczyński's words on Civic Coalition senator Krzysztof Brejza. PiS chairman said in the interview that "all Mr Brezja's stories are just empty words, no such things ever happened". "Let me remind that his name appears in serious context of the Inowrocław case, there's a suspicion of serious crimes. It had nothing to do with the elections," Kaczyński told "Sieci".

According to Czuchnowski, "here is where Kaczyński's lies begin". "Brejza's name doesn't appear a single time in the context of this affair. The Inowrocław affair is about an accountant, who by the way was PiS's candidate for councillor, and who is believed to have siphoned off 50,000 zlotys from the town hall, which she's been accused of," he explained.

He added that "pro-government media consistently and desperately tried to connect this case to senator, and earlier deputy, Brezja, while his name wasn't mentioned in the inquiry". "Also not mentioned is a thread regarding messages leaked from his phone, which were published by public television," Czuchnowski said.

Kittel also argued that "in such situations extraordinary measures should be triggered". "A special committee should look into it," he said, adding that "investigating it is not in the government and PiS interest, as so they will do whatever they can to sweep this case under the carpet".

"I have no doubt that the government has really a lot to hide regarding this case," he stressed.

Krzysztof Brejza commented on this fragment on Friday in TVN24. "With all due respect, am I supposed to believe I was being under surveillance in relation to that case two years later, during election camapaign? That's nonsense," he said.

According to the Civic Coalition senator, "these are Jarosław Kaczyński's insinuations". "Very general, but not general enough for me to not look into them in legal terms. My lawyers will look into this case and these insinuations by Jarosław Kaczyński, a man who loves to use such general terms that are meant to leave a mark in public opinion. There will be consequences," he said.

"I'd like to repeat once again that I was never questioned in any case, no inquiry was launched against me in 2019, I wasn't even called to report anywhere," he added.