Former minister arrested after standoff at Poland’s presidential palace

Poland’s bumpy transition to a new government hit dramatic turbulence on Wednesday when a prominent hardline minister in the former right-wing government declared himself a “political prisoner” and announced he was going on a hunger strike to protest his arrest following a conviction due to abuse. in force.

In an attempt to avoid a two-year prison sentence imposed in December by a Warsaw court, former minister Mariusz Kaminski took refuge from police on Tuesday at the palace of the Polish president, a close ally of the former conservative ruling party Law. and Justice.

The resulting standoff between police officers loyal to the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a die-hard centrist, and Law and Justice supporters escalated a disruptive campaign by the former ruling party, which was defeated in October elections, to block the transfer of power. by casting the election winners as illegitimate usurpers seeking to persecute their rivals.

Tuesday’s confrontation at the presidential palace ended peacefully late in the evening after police officers were allowed to enter the building. They took into custody Mr Kaminski, a former minister in charge of Poland’s security services, along with a former aide, Maciej Wasik, who has also been convicted of abuse of power.

In a statement issued from prison on Wednesday, Mr Kaminski denounced his arrest as “an act of political revenge” and said: “That is why, as a political prisoner, I am starting a hunger protest from the first day of my imprisonment.”

Mr Kaminski, one of the most powerful members of the former Law and Justice government, led Poland’s crackdown on migrants trying to sneak into the country from neighboring Belarus. He sparked outrage in 2021 by accusing migrants of being sexual deviants.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, a monitoring group, called Kaminski’s description of himself as a political prisoner a “very unfair distortion” that “damages the memory of people who were actually imprisoned for their beliefs, attitudes and fights for democracy and human rights. ”

Mr. Kaminski and Mr. Wasik were sentenced to prison last month for their role in the 2007 entrapment of a political rival while serving as senior officials in Poland’s anti-corruption agency during a previous Law and Justice government. The case involved evidence that they had overseen a bribe offer and the forgery of documents in their pursuit of rival Andrzej Lepper, a radical peasant leader who later committed suicide.

The case dragged on for years and resulted in a first conviction in 2015. President Andrzej Duda pardoned them, but his action was later declared invalid. A new case, started after an appeal by Mr Lepper’s family, ended in a new conviction on December 20. But the men remained at large until this week, when a Warsaw court issued a warrant for their immediate arrest, prompting Mr. Kaminski to seek refuge in the presidential palace.

Law and Justice won more votes than any other party in Poland’s general election in October, but lost its parliamentary majority to a coalition of parties led by Mr Tusk, who was appointed prime minister in December.

The chairman of the former ruling party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, stressed that right-wing forces won the elections and repeatedly vowed to block the new government’s attempts to assert its authority. He led supporters in an occupation of the headquarters of Poland’s public broadcaster last month, claiming that a management change ordered by Mr Tusk’s culture minister was an attack on democracy.

Television and radio stations in the public broadcasting system had previously served as propaganda mouthpieces for Law and Justice, spreading conspiracy theories about Mr Tusk as a German agent bent on turning Poland into a puppet state.

In a sign of further trouble, a Warsaw court ruled on Tuesday that the government could not install new management at state TV and radio without the consent of the National Media Council, a body created by Law and Justice and packed with loyalists opposed to Mr Slagtan .