Poland: President Duda pardons two former populist ministers
Andrzej Duda decided to pardon the two opposition deputies who were arrested in early January in the presidential palace.
The two men were being prosecuted for abuse of power dating back to 2007, when they were heads of the anti-corruption office.
While it was supposed to embody the return of the rule of law in Poland, the affair exacerbated the standoff between the president and the new liberal government.
Andrzej Duda on July 11, 2023 in Vilnius (Lithuania).
© Paul Ellis/AP
By: RFI Follow
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With our correspondent in Warsaw,
Adrien Sarlat
“
The decree on the right of pardon has been published, they are pardoned, I officially confirm it.
» A release from prison to cheers.
Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik were expected by their supporters after almost two weeks of detention.
The deputies had started a hunger strike, believing that the presidential pardon they had already benefited from in 2015 was sufficient.
In reality, it had taken place before their appeal to the Court of Cassation and was therefore invalid.
But after their incredible arrest in the president's palace and a hunger strike in prison, they are indeed released.
In recent weeks, the legal drama has unleashed passions, illustrating the now permanent standoff between the new government of Donald Tusk and President Andrzej Duda.
He defends the interests of PiS.
Since the arrest of the deputies, the party and its faithful have been crying “
political prisoners
”.
“
The Minister of Justice did not apply article 568 under which he could have suspended the sentences.
He could have, but he didn’t
,” Duda blamed.
The last member of PiS to be able to stand up to the new government, the president could resist it until the end of his mandate, in May 2025.
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