Polish President Andrzej Duda has pardoned for the second time two former members of the elected national-conservative PiS government who were imprisoned and convicted of abuse of office. Former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former State Secretary Maciej Wasik should be released from prison with immediate effect, Duda said in Warsaw on Tuesday.
In the evening, demonstrators gathered in front of the prisons in Radom near Warsaw and Przytuly Stare in the northeast of the country, where the two politicians are being held, and demanded their release.
Duda announced almost two weeks ago that he had asked Attorney General Adam Bodnar to initiate clemency proceedings. Bodnar responded to this request on Tuesday with a negative statement. However, this is not binding on the president.
The dispute over the fate of Kaminski and Wasik has become a focal point in recent weeks in the dispute between the centre-left government of Donald Tusk and the PiS with its ally Duda. The two politicians were arrested on January 9 and taken to prison after initially seeking protection in the presidential palace. The PiS describes the two as “political prisoners”.
Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of office by a district court in Warsaw in December after an appeal. Duda granted the two pardons after an initial trial in 2015. However, the Supreme Court declared this pardon unlawful, because the appeal procedure was still ongoing at that time. Duda emphasized again on Tuesday that the 2015 pardon is still valid in his view.
Kaminski has been on hunger strike since the start of his detention. According to Duda, his health is bad. (dabbing/sda/dpa)
Soource :Watson
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