NIK chief notifies prosecutor about possible offence by PiS chairman Kaczyński

The NIK president Marian Banaś informed in a statement that he notified the prosecutor's office about potential offence committed by PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. He added the move was a response to Kaczyński's "recent activity in the media".

The potential offences Jarosław Kaczyński is said to have committed pertain to public insulting of a constitutional body, use of violence or threat to coerce a public officer to assist him in undertaking or omitting official duties, as well as slander.

"Formulating his comments, Mr Jarosław Kaczyński acted as Deputy Prime Minister, who should especially respect the presumption of innocence rule enshrined in the Constitution, the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the Charter of Fundamental Rights, the Code of Criminal Procedure, as well as the Directive of the European Parliament and Council (EU) 2016/343 from 9 March, 2016, and finally he should know that the prosecutor's office did not formulate any charges within the last two years" - Banaś wrote in his statement.

Banaś reminded that his "constitutional and lawful duty" as NIK chief was to "safeguard the independence of this institution".

He explained that this meant he "cannot allow a situation in which a member of an audited institution unlawfully pressures the constitutional auditing body, and falsely accuses a particular person of such actions and characteristics which could demean them in the eyes of public opinion and their subordinates".

The NIK chief argued that due to the "scale of infringement, a firm action has become necessary to protect independence of the Supreme Audit Office, with full awareness of political circumstances and legal dependence of the institution the Supreme Audit Office President has asked for help".