Polish Prime Minister Accuses President of Obstructing Justice

Polish Prime Minister Tusk said President Duda obstructed justice, after he posed for a photo with two jailed lawmakers in his office.

"This situation is unbelievable. Convicts, who were about to be transferred to solitary confinement, chose a more comfortable place than the presidential palace," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said today. He said that President Andrzej Duda and Law and Justice (PiS) party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski could both be held responsible for obstruction of justice.

Mr Tusk's comments came after the Polish presidential office published a photo of Mr Duda with two MPs, Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik, at an event at the presidential palace.

When PiS came to power in 2015, Mr Duda pardoned Mr Kaminski, who had been convicted of abuse of power in his previous position, and appointed him interior minister. Lawyers then challenged whether Mr Duda had the authority to pardon Mr Kaminski before the appeals court ruled.

Poland's Supreme Court last year said the case needed to be reviewed and sentenced Kaminski and his deputy Wasik to two years in prison in December.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks in Warsaw on January 3. Photo: AFP

"A dark autocracy is forming. We will not allow Poland to have political prisoners," Mr Kaminski told reporters. "We are dealing with a deep national crisis, rebellion in the courts. We are not hiding, we are with the president."

According to the speaker of the Polish House of Representatives, Szymon Holownia, the December ruling means that Mr. Kaminski and Mr. Wasik have lost their parliamentary status. Both men have denied the decision and said they will still attend the next meeting of parliament .

President Duda met with Mr Holownia on January 8 to convince him that his pardon was valid and that the court had no right to make further rulings, but they failed to reach a consensus. Mr Holownia, the speaker of the lower house of parliament, decided to postpone the meeting of parliament this week until next week.

President Andrzej Duda (center) poses with MPs Mariusz Kaminski (second from right) and Maciej Wasik (second from left) in this photo released by the Polish presidential office on January 9. Photo: prezydent.pl

Relations between President Duda and Prime Minister Tusk, who took office in December, have been strained recently as the two leaders come from different political parties.

Mr Tusk was Poland's prime minister from 2007 to 2014 and served as president of the European Council from 2014 to 2019. He returned to Polish politics in 2021 and led the opposition Civic Coalition to victory in October's parliamentary elections, ending eight years of PiS rule.

After taking office, Mr. Tusk reformed Poland's state media, firing a series of heads of these agencies. President Duda at the time criticized Mr. Tusk for "causing chaos".

Nhu Tam (According to Reuters )

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