FLASH
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The Polish police have arrested the former Minister of the Interior and the Deputy Minister of the Interior, inside the presidential palace in Warsaw. Mariuz Kaminski and Maciej Uasik were sentenced to two years in prison last month for abuse of office when they headed an anti-corruption office in 2007. After the arrests, new Interior Minister Marcin Kieruinski wrote in X: "Everyone is equal before the law".
The arrests highlight the political turmoil between the Law and Justice party (PiS) and the new pro-EU coalition. The former interior minister and deputy minister, who were elected PiS MPs in October, refused to recognize last month's court ruling because President Andrzej Duda pardoned them for abuse of office in 2015. Duda has also said he does not recognizes the court's decision because it insists that the pardon remains valid.
They have been stripped of their mandates, but they and President Duda insist that they remain legally elected deputies. On Monday evening, the court issued an order to the police to detain them. Despite this, Duda invited the two to the Presidential Palace in Warsaw on Tuesday morning to attend a ceremony to swear in two of their former colleagues as presidential advisers.
"We are dealing with a very serious state crisis. A grim dictatorship is being created,” Kaminski said. After the arrests, several hundred PiS supporters demonstrated outside the palace in their support.
"They enter the presidential palace and arrest people. The Presidential Palace is similar to an embassy! People seek refuge from oppression, yet some question the presidential pardon. Who is above the President? This government, now, seems to be operating outside the limits of the law."
Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a press conference that the situation was "unbelievable". He stated that the court's decision must be respected, while he accused President Duda of helping the deputies avoid justice.
Tusk's coalition took office last month pledging to undo PiS changes to the judiciary, media and civil service that the European Commission and many other international bodies say have undermined the rule of law in Poland. One of his first actions was to reform TV, radio and the state news agency that PiS had turned into a propaganda tool for his government.
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