Polish president to pardon jailed ex-ministers again

Polish President Andrzej Duda said on Thursday that he will pardon for the second time the senior officials that were detailed and jailed on Tuesday, after they were convicted of abuse of power, reported Xinhua.

In March 2015, Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik were sentenced to three years in prison for masterminding an anti-corruption provocation in 2007, when they were heading the country's Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. However, in November 2015 after the Law and Justice (PiS) party came to power, Duda pardoned them both, allowing Kaminski to become interior minister.

Nevertheless in June 2023, the case returned to the docket, and in December that year Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison in the same case.

After meeting with Kaminski's and Wasik's wives on Thursday, Duda said that at their request, he had decided to initiate pardon proceedings for both PiS politicians. He also said he had pardoned both men in a "textbook way" in 2015, which "remains effective."

The high-profile arrest on Tuesday, which according to Polish media reports took place in the presidential palace, is seen as an escalation of the standoff between Poland's new government and its national conservative predecessor PiS, of which Duda is an ally.

The new government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk dismissed the heads of three state media outlets after coming into power in October, which angered the conservatives and triggered an exchange between Duda and Tusk over the rule of law.

A major anti-government protest organized by PiS is also being held on Thursday afternoon near the Polish parliament.