The portal wPolityce.pl reports that there is currently no cassation appeal lodged by the representatives of Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński against the Warsaw Court of Appeal verdict. Meanwhile, segments of the media aligned with the incumbent government are saturated with similar claims. The underlying motive behind what some observers call a disinformation effort appears to be a bid to involve President Andrzej Duda in a risky political game. Some expect that a crackdown on PiS ministers would end only if they end up in prison. The question remains: will this tactic succeed?
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The question of immunity rests on the Supreme Court’s ruling and the issue that the revoked decision of the Marshal has not been published in Monitor Polski. There is no legal mechanism by which mercy can erase a punishment.
– remarks the defense attorney for Mariusz Kamiński in a statement provided to the wPolityce.pl portal.
In the Kamiński and Wąsik case, several elements are clear. Both received presidential pardons in 2015 from President Duda, and Szymon Hołownia’s decision to allow their terms to lapse was challenged and overturned by the Supreme Court’s Chamber for Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs. Previously, after a controversial Supreme Court ruling, the Warsaw court imposed absolute prison terms and bans on political office. This occurred despite the Constitutional Court’s clear judgment that the presidential pardon aligned with the Constitution. Recently, the Warsaw-Śródmieście District Court moved to implement those sentences for the two politicians, seemingly without waiting for the Chamber of Labor and Social Security of the Supreme Court to issue its opinion on the Kamiński case, despite prior constitutional assurances and procedural questions raised by higher courts.
Hit the president
At the same time, pressure intensified on President Andrzej Duda, who reportedly could grant pardons to the two politicians again. Observers note that this pressure was leveraged by media actors and political figures aligned with Donald Tusk. The president cannot grant pardons to PiS parliamentarians again, given the presidential action already taken in 2015. When the president reportedly rejected any renewed pardon for obvious constitutional reasons, and with support from Kamiński and Wąsik MPs, some media circles speculated about filing a cassation appeal by the convicted politicians against the Warsaw judgment. This speculation is widely regarded as unsupported. Their lawyers have not received a formal justification or dissent from the December Warsaw Court of Appeal ruling. They successfully appealed Hołownia’s decision. Initiating a cassation appeal would imply alignment with the Court of Appeal’s decision, a step both politicians have publicly denied. In interviews with the wPolityce.pl portal, they asserted their immunity remains intact, making a near-term cassation unlikely.
Nevertheless, the pursuit of Wąsik and Kamiński unfolds within an atmosphere described by critics as chaotic and lawless. Some see it as a political retaliation by certain judicial circles against government supporters, turning the legal process into a scene reminiscent of a Kafka novel. Proponents argue that PiS officials are confronted by a legal environment they consider hostile to constitutional norms, while opponents view the rhetoric as an attempt to weaponize the courts for political ends.
Source: wPolityce