– I appeal for this for humanitarian, human and state reasons. For this bit of decency in the compromising situation that the Polish state finds itself in, when those who pursue the interests of this country by fighting corruption are in prison, while those against whom corruption charges have been brought go to the European Parliament as a result of the decision their colleagues from the same political class, Duda said.
Włodzimierz Karpiński wrote an open letter. “You are equating me with two PiS politicians”
At the beginning of the letter, Włodzimierz Karpiński reminded that he was an innocent man, although he had been charged. “They result from slander,” he said. He recalled that he spent nine months in custody.
“The prosecutor questioned me three times during this period, for a total of about 10 hours,” he wrote. The MEP wrote that after his arrest, all phones were taken away from his family, although the device belonging to his wife “contained important medical data related to her illness.”
“My wife was given permission to contact me after a month and a half of my pre-trial detention. She was then able to see me for one hour a month. To see me, she had to travel 11 hours each time. For many months I could not see any of my sons. “As a family, we had to experience this unfair and difficult situation separately, in silence, with no outside help,” we read in the letter.
The MEP mentioned that the prosecutor’s office had repeatedly published messages about him and “prejudged his guilt, taking only its interpretations as facts.” “Similarly, in your public statements, you equate me with two PiS politicians, legally convicted by an independent Polish court, who irrevocably lost their parliamentary seats because of this. This is a disgraceful action,” he states.
“Let me remind you that everyone is entitled to inherent and inalienable dignity, the protection of which is your duty. I would like to emphasize that the Constitution guarantees the equality of people before the law. Meanwhile, the situation of the convicted Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik and mine – a person with no criminal record – is different. In my case, there was not even indictment, and they were legally convicted for the crimes committed,” he emphasized.
Włodzimierz Karpiński to the president: The reality in Polish arrests is dramatic
“You are making statements towards me only to achieve short-term political goals. Your party colleagues, whom you ultimately managed to successfully pardon, were convicted by a court adjudicating among judges whom you did not appoint for the crime of acting to the detriment of the public interest. False tones in you “Your statements were also made when you called for humane treatment of your PiS colleagues. You disregard the repeated long-term detention of many Polish citizens in detention,” he writes.
In an open letter, Włodzimierz Karpiński referred to the principle of the presumption of innocence and recalled the EU directive on this matter.
The politician stated that after coming to power, PiS, with the participation of Andrzej Duda, changed regulations “that were consistent with European law and actually guaranteed the presumption of innocence.”
“Since then, in Poland, an accusation of committing a serious crime by the prosecutor’s office is enough to arrest you. You did not notice that it was you who signed the act that decided on the severe restrictions that your colleagues faced. Thus, you called for conduct contrary to the law which you were You are the promoter,” reads the content of the letter.
“The reality in Polish detention centers is dramatic. Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik experienced nothing worse than others deprived of their liberty by the democratic Polish state. Law and Justice, including Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, were responsible for the functioning of detention centers for the last eight years. Too frequent and long use of arrests against citizens is a failure of the rule of law,” we read in the letter.
Włodzimierz Karpiński was in custody from February to November 2023 in connection with the “garbage scandal” in Warsaw. In mid-November, after being released, he officially received a mandate as an MEP, taking the place of Krzysztof Hetman.
The president pardoned Kamiński and Wąsik. Conference with the participation of former ministers’ wives/Polsat News/Polsat News
