Poland's President Andrzej Duda on Wednesday (Jan. 17) called on the country's Justice Minister Adam Bodnar to release the two recently arrested former ministers of the no-longer-ruling Law and Justice government. Duda added he had received information that one of the imprisoned politicians - former interior minister Mariusz Kamiński - had to be force-fed due to deteriorating health condition.
At a press conference in Davos on Wednesday, President Andrzej Duda shared new information regarding the former interior minister Mariusz Kamiński, currently in prison after having been senteced by a court for abuse of power.
"Today I've received information from Mr Mariusz Kamiński's wife (Barbara Kamińska - edit.) regarding a court order that minister Kamiński be force-fed, because his health condition has started to pose danger to his life and wellbeing. The court has ordered he be force-fed," Duda reiterated.
President calls for the release
The president then called upon Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar to allow Kamiński and Wąsik to take a break from serving the sentence. He stressed that Bodnar, as prosecutor general, had the authority to do that at any given moment.
"I'd like to remind the prosecutor general that he is a former Commissioner for Human Rights (Poland's ombudsman - edit.), that for years he served as vice-president of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights - that this is a situation of a human. A human who has served his country with full dedication and who feels deeply wronged by what the organs of the Polish state - I'm talking about Polish courts - are doing to him today, placing him in prison," Duda said.
The president also stressed it was precisely why Kamiński had gone on a hunger strike, adding that the former minister was in "a very bad health condition".
"I appeal to the minister, former commissoner for human rights associatied with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, to reflect on himself and what he is doing," Andrzej Duda added.
Kamiński and Wąsik sentenced
On Dec. 20, 2023, the Regional Court in Warsaw sentenced Kamiński and Wąsik to two years in prison for abuse of power years back in the so-called "land scandal". The two politicians were detained by the police last Tuesday (Jan. 9) and placed in separate prisons shortly after.
Last Thursday (Jan. 11), President Duda launched a pardoning procedure of Kamiński and Wąsik, acting at the request of the jailed politicians' wives. He also asked minister Bodnar, who is also Poland's prosecutor general, to suspend their imprisonment for the duration of the pardoning procedure.
Adam Bodnar confirmed he had received the president's request in that regard and launched the proceedings. The justice minister told TVN24 on Monday (Jan. 15) he would look into the Kamiński and Wąsik's case files and that he would send them back to the president "in a few days," along with his opinion on the matter. He added that from then on "everything is in the president's hands".
Źródło: TVN24 News in English, TVN24, PAP