Polish Political Prisoners
For the first time since 1989Polish Political Prisoners
The detention of Law and Justice MPs Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński is clearly a coup d’état. Donald Tusk and his ministers committed a constitutional crime, directly attacking the President of Poland. Such a coup d’état, has never happened in the history of Poland and probably in no European country, for the police to attack the Presidential Palace and kidnap people, members of parliament, who are staying in the Presidential Palace. This is an action that is aimed at destroying the position of the President of the Republic of Poland and essentially questioning the constitutional structure of the Polish state. This is also an attempt to change the political structure of the Polish state.
MPs Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński were members of the Central Anti-corruption Bureau (CBA, Polish: Centralne Biuro Antykorupcyjne), which is a division of the Polish government, reporting to the Prime Minister of Poland, responsible for addressing corruption in Poland. Located in Warsaw, the CBA has been functional since 24 July 2006 (activated by the June 2006 Central Anti-corruption Bureau Bill). Mariusz Kamiński was its first director.
By fighting against corruption, Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik did not break the law. However, by using operational activities involving the controlled transfer of financial benefits, the controlled acceptance of financial benefits, and the entire special operation related to this activity (strictly regulated by law), they have undertaken legal actions against corrupted people from the political circle of Donald Tusk.
The illegal arrest of Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik is a clear warning to all CBA agents not to try to solve corruption cases, because it may end badly for them. Courts should meticulously and thoroughly prosecute criminals, not people who fight corruption.
Mariusz Kaminski
About
Born September 25, 1965 in Sochaczew – Polish historian and politician.
Anti-communist opposition activist during the Polish People’s Republic. Member of the Polish Parliament (1997–2006, 2011–2023), in 2005–2006 Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, in 2006–2009 head of the Central Anti-corruption Bureau, since 2011, vice-president of Law and Justice, in 2015–2023, minister – coordinator of secret services in the government of Beata Szydło and in the first and second government of Mateusz Morawiecki, in 2019–2023, minister of interior affairs and administration in the first and second government of Mateusz Morawiecki.
In 1981, he was sentenced to a year in a correctional facility for desecrating the Monument of Gratitude to the Red Army. In May 1983, he was arrested for actively resisting a demonstration. He was released in July of the same year. He was subsequently expelled from high school. He was a member of the Federation of Fighting Youth[1], and co-founded the editorial board of the underground magazines “Serwis Informacyjny FMW” and “Nasze Wiadomości”.
In 1991, he worked in the Department of Internal Threats of the National Security Bureau, later employed in the administration of the Mazovia Region of “Solidarity”, in the Central Customs Office and in Polish TV.
He was a co-founder of the Remember Foundation, which commemorates cursed soldiers. In 1993, he founded and then chaired the Republican League Association. In the 1997 parliamentary elections, he was elected for the first time as an MP from the list of the nationwide Solidarity Electoral Action. In 2001 and 2005, he was again elected as a candidate of Law and Justice in the Warsaw district.
Maciej Wasik
About
Born October 16, 1969 in Warsaw – Polish politician, state and local government official.
In the years 2006–2009, deputy head of the Central Anti-corruption Bureau, member of the Polish Parliament (2015–2019), Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, in the years 2015–2023, secretary of the College for Secret Services, in the years 2019– 2023 Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and Administration.
In the 1990s, he was an activist of the Republican League, an anti-communist movement. In 1994, he graduated in archaeology from the University of Warsaw[2]. He worked, among others, as a hotel manager and co-owner of a training company[3]. In the 2002 local elections, he ran as a candidate from the Law and Justice party and was elected as a councilor of the Praga-Południe district. In 2003, he was the mayor of Wawer for several months. Then he served as deputy commander of the City Guard of the capital city of Warsaw. In 2006, he took up the position of deputy head of the Central Anti-corruption Bureau, which he held until 2009[5].
In 2010, he was elected as a councilor of the Capital City Council. Warsaw. In 2014, he was elected to the Masovian Voivodeship Assembly. In November 2015, he was appointed Secretary of State in the Chancellery of the Prime Minister – he was a deputy minister-member of the Council of Ministers, and coordinator of special services, Mariusz Kamiński. He also took up the position of secretary of the College for Secret Services.
In the 2019 elections, he successfully ran for parliamentary re-election, receiving 14,280 votes. On November 25, 2019, he was appointed Secretary of State at the Ministry of Interior and Administration and also remained as secretary of the College for Secret Services.
Political Prisoner No 3756
About
Mr Jan Kowalski was living in the small town of Siedlce, not far away from Warsaw. He was an ordinary citizen, founding himself increasingly disillusioned with his government’s policies. Fueled by frustration, he began expressing his discontent openly, criticizing decisions that affected the lives of many.
Open letter of the international figures of Polish anti-communist opposition
OPEN LETTER TO ADAM BODNAR, MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND ATTORNEY GENERAL
We, the undersigned activists of the anti-communist opposition, firmly oppose the imprisonment of MPs Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, who, as creators and heads of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, contributed to cleansing our country of corruption and restoring high standards of its functioning. We do not agree that human rights should be violated and political prisoners appear there in Poland, the country for which we fought. Furthermore, we also do not agree with trampling on the legal order and ignoring applicable regulations, such as the right of pardon of the President of the Republic of Poland, his exclusive prerogative, applied to both imprisoned MPs.
Due to the initiation of the pardon procedure by the President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, we join his appeal for the immediate suspension of the execution of the sentence for the duration of this procedure and we call for it to be carried out as soon as possible. In the face of the hunger protest that the imprisoned MPs Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik have been conducting for several days, time is of particular importance for their health and even life.
We do not want political prisoners in Poland, let alone victims, of whom the communist regime had so many on its conscience, so we appeal for the immediate release of the imprisoned parliamentarians. Keeping them in prison, especially in the context of the commenced pardon procedure, will indicate not only political revenge but also physical and psychological repression.
We will never consent to the return of such repression. We won a free, democratic Poland and we want it to remain that way.
Piotr Łukasz Andrzejewski
Stanisław Fudakowski
Urszula Sikorska-Kelus
Maciej Łopiński
Antoni Mężydło
Piotr Naimski
Janusz Pałubicki
Krzysztof Wyszkowski
Adam Borowski
Anna Fotyga
Jan Krzysztof Kelus
Antoni Macierewicz
Andrzej Michałowski
Czesław Nowak
Zofia Romaszewska
Maria Dłużewska
Wiesław Johann
Ewa Kubasiewicz
Witold Marczuk
Bogusław Nizieński
Andrzej Leon Osipów
Bronisław Wildstein
Petition by the members of the National Association of the Interned and Repressed
Siedlce, January 13, 2024
Provisional authorities of the Republic of Poland:
Speaker of the Parliament, Hołownia Szymon
Prime Minister, Tusk Donald
Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice, Bodnar Adam
Minister of Internal Affairs, Kierwiński Marcin
Minister of National Defense, Kosiniak-Kamysz Władysław
Petition
Following the example of the petition of October 13, 1983 addressed to the Sejm (Parliament) of the Polish People’s Republic regarding the release of political prisoners of the communist system of enslavement, signed by the internees and political prisoners, we, the undersigned activists of the anti-communist opposition and people repressed for political reasons during the period of the Polish People’s Republic, request the immediate release of those imprisoned members of the Polish parliament in the person of Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, as well as other political prisoners of the current regime. The imprisonment of these people in prisons took place without any legal basis and in gross violation of all rights on the orders of our assessment of an organized criminal group. The further illegal detention of people in prisons, as well as the bandit attack on the Office of the President of the Republic of Poland, testify to the current government in power in Poland as cynical avengers against the Polish nation, and whose only goal is the devastation of Poland, its complete collapse, as well as its dependence through the creation of our country, a protectorate or a German province – to which we do not have and will never consent. Regardless of the above, we demand that the status of separate political prisoners be guaranteed to the parliamentarians deprived of their liberty. From the very beginning, the decisions of the current authorities refer to the darkest pages in Polish history, just like in the period of the communist dictatorship of the Polish People’s Republic, where the law was not taken into account, or the law was the dictatorship itself. It was a period when attempts were made to destroy the nation’s 1,000-year-old civilizational achievements. Therefore, we express our firm opposition to the totalitarian ambitions of the current ruling team. We encourage those who govern our country to be guided by common sense and a realistic look at Polish social life. Regardless of their position, no one is allowed to provoke society and expose the country to incalculable damage. It is better to turn back from the wrong path in time than to wait for the reaction of society, which will always force the authorities to give way, as we have already experienced in the not-so-distant time. At this point, we quote an old, wise Polish proverb: “he who sows the wind, reaps the storm” (“sow the wind, reap the whirlwind”). We do not agree to continue in lawlessness, because it may cost many victims, including those from the authoritarian team that exercises power with contempt for the law and the citizens of their own country.
Signed by more than 30 Polish personalities
A letter from prison by Mariusz Kaminski
Dear Friends,
thank you very much for your support, for your solidarity with me and Maciek, for your words of encouragement for our loved ones, for your prayers. I am asking and appealing: fight against the Evil that reappeared in our Country on December 13. We are holding on tight! Our enemies will never see the white flags in our hands. The spiteful Tusk regime is unable to break us. We will make it. We will win. Together we will defend Poland!
