Polish police arrested former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski (pictured) and former deputy interior minister Macie Wasik on a court order Wednesday as they hid in the presidential palace in Warsaw. New Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski said on X that everyone is equal under the law. EPA-EFE/Piotr Nowak
Jan. 10 (UPI) — Poland’s former interior minister and deputy interior minister, both now members of Parliament, were arrested on a court order Wednesday while hiding under the protection of Polish President Andrzej Duda.
The arrests of Mariusz Kaminski and Macie Wasik came as the new government seeks to assert the rule of law to bring Poland back into line with EU democratic rules.
New Interior Minister Marcin Kierwinski declared on X that “Everyone is equal before the law.”
The arrests of Kaminski and Wasik occurred amid tensions between the new pro-EU coalition government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) Party of President Duda.
Warsaw Police said in a statement on X that the MPs were arrested in accordance with a court order.
Kaminski and Wasik were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison in December for abusing their power in 2007 when they led the Central Anticorruption Bureau.
Duda pardoned them, but Poland’s Supreme Court in 2017 overruled that pardon, sending the case back to a lower court, which convicted the two former ministers.
Kaminski and Wasik contend they were properly pardoned by the president and characterized their conviction as lawlessness, refusing to acknowledge the convictions.
But police entered the presidential palace and arrested the men on a court warrant.
Duda said Wednesday during a televised speech that he was deeply shaken by the arrests.
During a press conference after Duda’s speech Prime Minister Tusk said the arrested men and Duda have to respect the court’s ruling.
“There is no rulebook for the prime minister or interior minister on how to act when convicts are in the Presidential Palace. This is clearly taking advantage of a situation in which no one will use force against such an institution as the president,” Tusk said.
The conflict between PiS and the new governing coalition is becoming a constitutional crisis as the Constitutional Tribunal and a new Supreme Court chamber of judges chosen by PiS have sided with Duda on his pardon of Kaminski and Wasik.