Polish court quashes convictions of anti-corruption officials
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
30.03.2016 15:40
A Warsaw court quashed proceedings against the former head and deputy head of Poland's Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA), following pardons issued by President Andrzej Duda in November.
Judge Piotr Schab at the District Court in Warsaw, 30 March. PAP/Tomasz Gzell
Both men currently occupy key positions in Poland, with Mariusz Kamiński serving as the country's secret services coordinator and Maciej Wąsik as secretary of state in President Duda's Chancellery.
Kamiński and Wąsik had been given three-year prison sentences in March 2015, seven months before conservative party Law and Justice returned to power in the October general election.
The original sentences concerned exceeding their powers in 2007 while running the CBA during Law and Justice's coalition government of 2005-2007.
According to the March 2015 verdict, Kamiński and Wąsik had illegally started an investigation into the ministry of agriculture – then run by coalition partner the Self-Defence party.
The court also found that the CBA was guilty of forging documents and carrying out illegal phone tapping in connection with the probe.
The verdict had not become final when Law and Justice came to power in October 2015.
President Andrzej Duda, himself formerly of Law and Justice, pardoned both men on 16 November.
He claimed that the verdicts had a “political character” laying the blame on centrist party Civic Platform, which led a coalition government between 2007 and 2015.
However, head of Civic Platform's parliamentary caucus Sławomir Neumann described the pardons as “an unprecedented attack on the rule of law.” (nh/di)
Source: PAP/IAR