Judge Bohdan Bieniek from the Chamber of Labor and Social Security of the Supreme Court spoke to TVP Info, noting that the justification for the expiry of MP Mariusz Kamiński’s mandate has already been signed and will be handed to the party today or tomorrow. He also stated that the Chamber of Extraordinary Scrutiny, which overturned the Sejm Speaker’s decision, is not a court.
The justification for the expiry of Mariusz Kamiński’s mandate has already been signed by the Judge-Rapporteur, and it will be signed today. It will be handed over to the parties today or tomorrow, he explained.
– said Judge Bieniek.
The appeal filed by Mariusz Kamiński against the decision of Sejm President Szymon Hołownia regarding the expiry of his parliamentary mandate was reviewed by the Labor Chamber of the Supreme Court on January 10 in a closed session attended by three judges and chaired by Judge Bieniek.
At the same time, the chamber’s ruling indicated that the previous decision in the same case by the Extraordinary Control Chamber of the Supreme Court, which nullified the Sejm Chairman’s decisions regarding the expiry of Kamiński’s mandate, was not a ruling of the Supreme Court Council.
Bieniek: IKN is not a court
Judge Bieniek stressed that the legal system must serve the common good of all citizens, emphasizing that judgments within this system must be respected. He questioned whether hero status for a social group should define judgment of a person as a whole, suggesting that verdicts are based on the specific charges facing an individual rather than a person’s entire life.
He added that the written grounds would reflect what was said during the oral announcement of the decision. He noted that Kamiński, in the past, was sentenced to prison by a final verdict and was entered into the National Criminal Register as a person convicted of a crime. He pointed out that the Marshal of the Sejm acted by terminating the mandate and delivering it to the relevant parties.
– said Judge Bieniek.
He stated that the written justification would also explain why the Labor Chamber ruled the way it did in Kamiński’s case.
He clarified that the strongest justification, from the Supreme Court’s point of view, would be the assertion that the Chamber for Extraordinary Scrutiny and Public Affairs is not a court, and therefore its statements do not represent an act of applying the law.
– said Judge Bieniek.
He added that from the Supreme Court’s perspective the Extraordinary Scrutiny Chamber does not constitute an independent court. The question of politicization, he suggested, should be left to publicists and journalists.
– said Judge Bieniek.
The case of Kamiński and Wąsik
The former head of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the former Interior Minister, Mariusz Kamiński, along with his former deputy Maciej Wąsik, received a two-year prison sentence by final verdict on December 20, 2023, in connection with the land scandal. Consequently, the Sejm Marshal decided to allow their parliamentary mandates to expire.
Szymon Hołownia made the decision despite a presidential pardon of the parliamentarians in 2015. He also directed Kamiński’s appeal to a different chamber of the Supreme Court than the one specified by law. The first president of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska, criticized the actions of both the Sejm Chairman and the President of the Chamber of Labor and Social Security, Piotr Prusinowski, as unacceptable.
Alternatively, if Judge Bieniek is to assess the politicization of the IKN, he might also weigh the politicization of his own chamber, which Hołownia asked to hear the Kamiński and Wąsik case in a bank that would not undermine confidence. Whether this ran into political theater remains a topic for commentators.
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yes/DAD
Source: wPolityce