THE UNLAWFUL DETENTION OF POLISH CONSERVATIVE OPPOSITION MPS UNDER THE TUSK ADMINISTRATION

This report documents a part of unlawful and politically motivated actions taken by the Polish authorities under the left-liberal administration of Prime Minister Donald Tusk, aimed at neutralizing conservative opposition leaders, undermining the constitutional separation of powers, and weaponizing the judicial and prosecutorial systems for partisan ends. The central focus of the report is the politically driven imprisonment of three opposition Members of Parliament: Mariusz Kamiński, Maciej Wąsik, and the author of this report, Marcin Romanowski. These detentions were carried out in direct violation of constitutional norms, statutory safeguards, and international legal protections. The author, MP Marcin Romanowski, was detained on 15 July 2024 despite holding immunity from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Prosecutors defied both domestic and international legal protections, and the case against him continues under the oversight of an unlawfully appointed National Public Prosecutor. It was only due to emergency intervention by the President of PACE that he was released. The case of MPs Kamiński and Wąsik arose from their anti-corruption activities in 2006–2007 as senior officials of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA). Although both were granted presidential clemency in 2015—before their convictions became final—the Supreme Court, in 2017 and again in 2023, unlawfully questioned the President’s constitutional power of clemency. Despite binding ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal upholding the President’s prerogative, both MPs were re-convicted and imprisoned in January 2024. In defiance of court rulings and the Constitution, Marshal of the Sejm Szymon Hołownia unilaterally declared the expiration of their parliamentary mandates. Their appeals were intentionally misdirected to an incompetent chamber of the Supreme Court to ensure politically favorable outcomes. Even after the competent chamber annulled the Marshal’s decisions, both MPs were prevented from exercising their mandates and physically barred from entering the Sejm. The Constitutional Tribunal ruled that these actions constituted gross violations of Articles 139, 96, and 190 of the Constitution, and found that the Sejm’s composition was unlawfully altered—casting constitutional doubt on all legislation adopted during this period. The Tribunal also condemned the government’s failure to respect the President’s clemency as a direct assault on the separation of powers and the rule of law.