Polish police have arrested two politicians convicted of abuse of power who had taken refuge in the palace of Polish president Andrzej Duda, in a dramatic escalation of a stand-off between the new and previous governments.
Mr Duda had welcomed Mariusz Kaminski and Maciej Wasik – members of the former ruling party – into the presidential palace as police went to their homes to arrest them.
Polish media reported the men were arrested inside the palace. Warsaw police gave no details, saying only that the arrest was “in accordance with the court order”.
The development is the latest in an escalating dispute between the new government, led by Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, and the conservative Law and Justice party that governed Poland for eight years until last month after its defeat in a general election in October.
Mr Duda is closely aligned with Law and Justice and is making it clear that he will oppose Mr Tusk’s agenda. Mr Duda’s second and final term runs until mid-2025.
Mr Tusk accused the president of going along with actions by Law and Justice to create chaos and instability after its electoral defeat, saying he “must stop this spectacle, which is leading to a very dangerous situation”.
The prime minister claimed the president was obstructing justice by giving the wanted men refuge. At a news conference, he read out a section of the penal code which he alleged Mr Duda had violated, and carries a prison term from three months to five years.
“I just want the president to be aware of what his political friends have tricked him into. They are the ones setting a trap for him, not me,” Mr Tusk said.
The dispute centres on former interior minister Kaminski and his ex-deputy Wasik, who came out of the palace briefly to speak to journalists.
“We are not hiding,” Kaminski said. “We are currently with the president of the Republic of Poland until evil loses.”
The pair were convicted of abuse of power for actions taken in 2007 when they served in an earlier Law and Justice-led government, and were sentenced in December to two years in prison. They insist they are innocent.
A court on Monday issued orders for police to arrest them and deliver them to prison.
After Law and Justice won power in 2015, Mr Duda issued a pardon to Kaminski and Wasik after they were convicted of abuse of power but before their appeals had gone to a higher court, allowing them to take high government positions.
Many legal experts said presidential pardons are to be reserved for cases that have gone through all appeals.
In June, Poland’s Supreme Court overturned the pardons and ordered a retrial.
On Tuesday, Mr Duda invited Kaminski and Wasik to his palace for a ceremony where he appointed two officials who had worked for them as his new advisers. His office posted a photo of him posing with all four.
After the ceremony, Kaminski and Wasik went outside and told reporters that police had searched their homes while they were away. They then went back inside the presidential palace, where they remained for several hours.
Parliamentary speaker Szymon Holownia postponed a planned session of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, which had been scheduled to start on Wednesday, until next week.
Kaminski and Wasik, who were re-elected as legislators in October, said they wanted to take part in the session, even though Mr Holownia and others insist that, under the law, their guilty sentences strip them of their parliamentary mandates.
The speaker said the situation had created a “deep constitutional crisis… that does not guarantee that the Sejm’s deliberations this week would be peaceful”.
Mr Tusk’s allies welcomed the arrests, saying they marked a return to officials being held accountable. “Let this be a warning to politicians for the next generation,” foreign minister Radek Sikorski said.
Former prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki was among Law and Justice officials who voiced outrage, describing the arrested men as “political prisoners”.
