Polish President Andrzej Duda wants to pardon two legally convicted former members of the PiS national conservative government for the second time. Duda said today in Warsaw that he has submitted a corresponding request to Justice Minister Adam Bodnar. The president had already met with the wives of the two PiS politicians.
The dispute between Donald Tusk's new center-left government and the former PiS government camp over the arrest of former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his deputy Maciej Wasik has brought Poland to the brink of a state crisis. .
The two politicians were arrested on Tuesday and taken to prison after initially seeking protection at the presidential palace. PiS describes the two as “political prisoners”. Kaminski went on hunger strike on the first day of detention.
Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced to two years in prison for abuse of power by a Warsaw district court in December following an appeal. Duda pardoned the two after a first trial in 2015. However, the highest court declared this pardon illegal because the appeal process was still ongoing at the time.