The Constitutional Tribunal has scheduled a hearing on September 10 to examine the constitutionality of the Sejm resolution establishing an investigative committee to deal with the issue of the use of the Pegasus system by the services – according to the Constitutional Tribunal’s data. Application to the Constitutional Court – in March this year. – filed by PiS MPs.
Back in May of this year. In connection with this application, the Constitutional Tribunal issued a protective order requiring the Pegasus Commission of Inquiry to “refrain from taking any action, whether factual or legal” until the final judgment in the case is delivered.
Despite the Constitutional Tribunal issuing a security order requiring the Pegasus Commission to take no action, the Commission will continue to work and explain the scandal we have been dealing with
– said the head of this investigative committee, Magdalena Sroka (PSL-TD).
The deputy head of this commission, Marcin Bosacki (KO), added at the time, referring to the decision of the Constitutional Court, that “we treat this pseudo-verdict as a purely political struggle of those who are afraid of solving the Pegasus case.”
We will work, we will not be intimidated by the pseudo-resolutions of the pseudo-TK
– he assured.
PiS President Jarosław Kaczyński said at the time that “after the decision of the Constitutional Court, PiS politicians no longer have the right to appear before the Pegasus Investigative Committee.”
Commission of Inquiry
In January this year, Parliament established a committee of inquiry into operational and reconnaissance activities using Pegasus. The scope of the committee’s work covers the period from November 2015 to November 2023. It will investigate the legality, correctness and purposefulness of activities carried out using this software, including: by the government, secret services and police. The committee must also determine who was responsible for purchasing Pegasus and similar tools for the Polish authorities.
According to the motion of a group of PiS MPs, the January resolution of the Sejm establishing this commission does not meet the requirement of “definitiveness of the law”. “The scope of the investigation commission’s work is defined incorrectly, (…) it is far from precise and logically incorrectly constructed”, it was assessed in the motivation for this motion.
Violation of the principles of correctness of legislation results in the imprecision of the contested provisions and, consequently, in their ambiguity
– emphasized.
According to the complainants, it is unclear what the scope of the operational and reconnaissance activities that the investigation committee must investigate is and whether these activities will be carried out exclusively using Pegasus or “another system”.
Moreover, the resolution did not specifically specify the issue that should be dealt with by the investigative committee. “The absence of a specific case (…) is evidenced by the extensive time frame, which covers the period from 16 November 2015 to 20 November 2023, that is, from the appointment of the Beata Szydło government to a date the selection of which is not specified. explained in the justification of the project”, it was pointed out. It was added that the subject of the committee’s work is in fact many procedures in which operational control was used – “completed or started, in which the MPs must urgently look for alleged irregularities.”
Violations of the Constitution
Another violation of the Constitution in this case, according to the applicants, is that “the Commission’s assessment of the legality of operational and reconnaissance activities also includes the review of the activities of the courts that, in accordance with the relevant provisions, have authorized (or not authorized) the application of operational control.”
It is not permissible for the Commission of Inquiry to be given the power to assess the legality of the judicial activities of courts.
– emphasized.
The Constitutional Tribunal will deal with this issue in a composition chaired by Zbigniew Jędrzejewski and rapporteurs Stanisław Piotrowicz and Jarosław Wyrembak. The hearing will start on 10 September at 20:00 10. The representative of the PiS group of MPs in this issue is Zbigniew Bogucki.
The next meetings of the Pegasus Investigation Committee will take place – as announced – in the first half of September. Former and current officials of the Internal Security Service, the Military Intelligence Service and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau will be interviewed.
The government does not publish the rulings of the Constitutional Court
Still on March 6 this year. The Sejm adopted a resolution on eliminating the consequences of the constitutional crisis of 2015-2023, stating that “taking into account the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal, issued in violation of the law in the activities of a state body, may be considered a violation of the principle of legalism by these bodies.” At the end of July, the Sejm adopted two laws aimed at reforming the Constitutional Tribunal. Amendments to these laws were subsequently adopted by the Senate, and these amendments are currently awaiting consideration by the Sejm. A draft constitutional amendment regarding the Constitutional Tribunal is being worked on in the Senate. Since the Sejm resolution was adopted, the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal have not been published in the Journal of Laws.
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MD/PAP
Source: wPolityce