On Monday at 10.30 p.m., the ninth effort to interview Zbigniew Ziobra by the Parliamentary Committee on Pegasus will begin. The erstwhile Minister of Justice and the lawyer General from the time of the regulation of law and justice is to be detained and forced to be brought to the sitting.
The Warsaw territory Court decided last week to apply a coercion measurement to Ziobra. "The court found that these conditions (...) - persistent non-statutory, persistent evasion of evidence which form the basis for the ruling of specified a measurement were met and the court so took into account the committee's request" - the press secretary for criminal court, justice Anna Ptazek, argued.
Conflict over TK competences
The president of the Constitutional Tribunal Bogdan Święczkowski in a letter to the Chief of Police Marek Boronia reminded of the interim decision of the Constitutional Tribunal of 8 August. The Court prohibited Ziobra from issuing sentences of imprisonment pending the execution of the TK judgement of 10 September 2024, which declared the appointment of the Pegasus committee unconstitutional.
"I remind the commandant that (...) a police officer is obliged to refuse to comply with an order or order of the superior, as well as orders of the prosecutor, state administration or local government, if the execution of an order or order is connected with the offence" - wrote Święczkowski. The president of the Constitutional Tribunal besides sent a announcement to the prosecutor in the case of justice Magdalena Wójcik, who decided to bring Ziobra.
Policy responses
Spokeswoman of the Chief Police Officer Katarzyna Nowak told PAP that the police were incapable to neglect the court order. The territory court has assessed that the Court has no competence to interfere in decisions of the general courts and does not constitute "supercourt".
"How PiS decided that individual like Mr. Święczkowski would be at the head of the Court, I guess no 1 had any doubts that it was more about PiS's gendarme than individual who is to watch over constitutional order in Poland and it is black and white today" - said Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Ziobro replied to this message on platform X: "The president of the TK simply reminded the Police of the law, and already the spell Tusk can't halt rage or a stream of lies. All he has to do is kick his feet."
Commission legality dispute
Deputy Chief of Investigation Tomasz Trela (Levice) announced effective detention of Ziobra. "The case is trivially simple. On Monday morning, the police halt Ziobra, put him in a police car and deliver him to the Sejm for questioning in front of the Pegasus committee of inquiry. Here, no shouting or fear of Świętczkowski will change anything. Mr. Ziobro, until Monday!" - he wrote on the X portal.
Marcin Warchol (PiS) said that "the committee is nonexistent, it acts illegally". "TK issued a safety order. Therefore, all authorities should refrain from making specified decisions and the decision of the territory court is totally unlawful. There is no legal basis, and an effort to carry out detention will simply be a violation of the powers of the authorities if they do" - said Warch.
Previous detention attempts
On January 31, the police had already stopped Ziobra erstwhile after an interview on tv Republic, but he did not make it to the committee of inquiry. At that time, the Commission considered the transportation to be ineffective and requested detention for up to 30 days, which the court did not take into account.
Only a public gathering with Ziobra was scheduled for Monday. The absence of a scheduled secretarial sitting may indicate that the members of the committee number for another failure in an effort to interview the erstwhile minister.
Background of the Pegasus case
The Parliamentary Investigative Committee wants to interview Ziobra for over a year in connection with the usage of Pegasus software for surveillance of political opponents. This was to happen at the time he was Minister of Justice and lawyer General.
The Sejm agreed on July 25 to detain and force the Ziobra after his next absence at the hearing. PiS politicians believe that the committee is acting illegally, citing the judgement of the Constitutional Tribunal of September 10. However, the Sejm stated in March that "the inclusion in the activities of the public authority of the decisions of the Constitutional Tribunal issued in violation of the law could be considered a violation of the rule of legalism by those authorities".
The Commission shall examine the legality of the activities carried out utilizing Pegasus by the government, peculiar services and police from November 2015 to November 2023. According to NIK, the software was purchased for CBA for PLN 25 million from the Justice Fund in autumn 2017.
Sources used: "PAP" Note: This article was edited with the aid of Artificial Intelligence.
