Attorney Dorota Brejza spoke about a “hate campaign based on illegal operational materials” before the Pegasus investigative commission. The wife of Civic Coalition politician Krzysztof Brejza talked about the “unprecedented” abuse of the surveillance system that affected her family. In her opinion, even though the services used Pegasus, it ultimately did them no good.
Dorota Brejza, a lawyer and wife of KO MEP Krzysztof Brejza, was called as a witness during her statement to the media before the meeting of the Parliamentary Investigative Committee on surveillance with the Pegasus system. October 3, 2024 /Piotr Nowak /PAP
Dorota Brejza accused the secret services, the prosecutor’s office and the media of manipulating operational materials (as she pointed out, classified, which constituted an additional violation of the law), obtained using the Pegasus spy software, in order to discredit her husband and his party before the 2019 parliamentary elections.
The MEP’s wife pointed out that the beginning of media attacks on her husband dates back to August 2019, when TVP Info “regularly broadcast materials defaming him.”
From morning to evening, every day, especially during peak viewing periods, defamatory content with sensational, criminal contexts was broadcast, she said.
Before the investigative commission, Dorota Brejza pointed out manipulations in the materials presented in the government media regarding her husband. As she testified, information from his private messages was manipulated and presented in a way that distorted their content.
On government television, you saw information that was confusingly similar to that generated by Krzysztof Brejza, which was manipulated, words and meanings were reversed, which distorted the content of the message – said Brejza, adding that in some cases the sender and recipient were swapped, and independent messages were compiled in one message.
Brejza’s testimony also concerned manipulations related to presenting the context of the news. The attorney emphasized that “information that was neutral was presented in a criminal context.” She pointed out that the government media presented operational materials that were classified at that time, which constituted an additional violation of the law.
The government media had operational materials that were classified, she said, pointing to the publication by the former deputy head of TAI and head of TVP Info, Samuel Pereira, not only of manipulated news, but also of fragments of interrogations that were presented as credible, even though – as she added – “control “The operational department did not confirm these lies.”
Not only my husband was under surveillance using the Pegasus system, but indirectly all the people he contacted – Dorota Brejza testified on Thursday. She added that TVP Info’s “media campaign” against her husband was a “difficult experience for her entire family.”
According to the attorney, the Pegasus system was used, among others, in connection with fraud proceedings in Kruszwica at the Inowrocław city hall. Of course, my husband not only had nothing to do with this case, he also had no knowledge that this procedure was taking place, she assured.
She noted that ultimately Pegasus was not used against people who participated in extortion. Politicians were surveilled with Pegasus (…). I believe that Pegasus was used to ask the OSIR janitor from Inowrocław whether Krzysztof Brejza had arranged a job for him. This is even more absurd, she said.
Brejza informed that the “massive media campaign” launched by TVP Info against her husband was “a very difficult experience for her entire family”, as well as for her children. She emphasized that at that time the children felt “a sense of threat, depression and fear” from their parents.
She added that the materials published by TVP Info resulted in the fact that the Brejz family began to receive threats, also directed against children. She recalled that her family was under police protection for several weeks due to this fact.
Dorota Brejza at the meeting of the Parliamentary Investigative Committee on surveillance of the Pegasus system /Piotr Nowak /PAP
The Associated Press reported in December 2021 that Krzysztof Brejza’s phone was repeatedly infected with Pegasus. This was confirmed by research by Citizen Lab and Amnesty Tech.
It became clear to us that the entire hate campaign was based on illegally obtained materials, said Dorota Brejza. She added that the investigation against her husband was based on the slander of Agnieszka H., a person later accused of extortion, and the operational control was based on unreliable evidence.
According to the lawyer, the use of Pegasus was aimed not only at surveillance, but also at manipulating content in order to exert political pressure. The PEGA committee of the European Parliament called the use of Pegasus in Poland “European Watergate”, which shows that this tool was used to try to influence the outcome of the parliamentary elections, Brejza noted on Thursday.
During her free speech, Dorota Brejza also talked about the scale of surveillance. From April to October 2019, 85,000 text messages from a period spanning several years ago were downloaded from her husband’s phone.
The stolen materials also included location data, health information, internet search history and electronic banking passwords. Dorota Brejza revealed that initially her husband’s phone was infected using profiled messages sent by the services containing links that pretended to be messages from people with whom Krzysztof Brejza contacted on a daily basis. From July 2019, the infection would no longer require any user interaction.
The lawyer pointed out that none of these operations led to confirmation of the allegations against her husband. The services used Pegasus and were left with absolutely nothing, she emphasized.
Finally, Dorota Brejza appealed for a full explanation of the Pegasus scandal, pointing to the need to hold accountable those responsible for this violation of the law. In her opinion, the history of Pegasus is proof of the “degeneration of state institutions” and the “immorality and wickedness of the actions of the politicized secret services, the prosecutor’s office and the media.” She also pointed to the need to reform the operational control system to avoid similar abuses in the future.
Brejza reminded that at the beginning of January 2022, the Onet portal published at 6 a.m. information that she and her husband had sued Jarosław Kaczyński for his words that the use of the Pegasus system to surveil Krzysztof Brejza was justified.
She added that later on the same day, Krzysztof Brejza’s father, the then president of Inowrocław Ryszard Brejza, received a summons to the district prosecutor’s office in Gdańsk as a suspect. I consider this series of political and procedural events scandalous, she said. In her opinion, bringing charges against her father-in-law “in this formula” is “a shame and disgrace to the prosecutor’s office.” How can public opinion and evidence be manipulated in this way? – she asked. She added that ultimately the prosecutor’s office did not bring any charges against Ryszard Brejza.
The so-called The Inowrocław invoice scandal broke out in October 2017, when it came to light that the city hall had issued false invoices, which allegedly came from companies mostly based in other voivodeships. However, these companies usually had no idea about them. According to investigators, the money went mainly to the people who issued the invoices.
Irregularities were detected in the department of culture, promotion and social communication. After their disclosure, its head, Agnieszka Ch., who reported to the mayor of the city, Ryszard Brejza, lost her job. He was the one who notified the prosecutor’s office about the false invoices. The total amount of damage caused to the Inowrocław City Hall and the Ziemowit Culture and Sports Center in Kruszwica exceeded PLN 300,000. zloty. The main suspect is Agnieszka Ch., who still pleads not guilty.
Ch. She placed the blame primarily on Krzysztof and Ryszard Brejz. In the preparatory proceedings, Agnieszka Ch. she emphasized that the money was used to maintain a “troll farm” in the Inowrocław town hall. According to Ch.’s explanation, the farm “was intended to build a positive image of the Brejzas and at the same time slander their political opponents.” Testimony of Agnieszka Ch. gave the services the basis to apply to the District Court in Warsaw for permission to inspect and use Pegasus against Krzysztof Brejza.
Dorota Brejza testified before the investigative commission that in 2018, the services initiated an operation code-named “Lizard”, in which her husband, Krzysztof Brejza, was listed under the pseudonym “Rattletnik”.
Explanations by Agnieszka Ch. at that stage, they should simply be verified procedurally, both through hearings and financial analyses, Brejza said. She added that already in 2019, the prosecutor’s office had analyzes that showed the unreliability of these testimonies, prepared by the regional prosecutor’s office in Gdańsk.
Dorota Brejza also noted that, apart from Agnieszka Ch.’s testimony, the request for control was based on the so-called personal source of information (OZI), which was politically involved. Therefore, I have no doubt that there were no grounds for such actions, she added.
She also referred to Agnieszka Ch.’s personal motivations, recalling that shortly before giving incriminating testimony, she was involved in a dispute with the Inowrocław City Hall. It was related to her work laptop, which she did not return after finishing work. The case ended with a payment order. A month later, Agnieszka Ch. she accused Krzysztof Brejza and his father, the mayor of the city.
