Polish justice minister seeks to strip opposition MP of immunity over Pegasus spyware purchase

Prosecutor general Adam Bodnar, who also serves as justice minister, has asked parliament to strip an opposition MP of immunity so that he can face charges over his role in the purchase of Pegasus spyware when he was part of the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

On Tuesday afternoon, the prosecutor general’s office announced that Bodnar had issued the request regarding Michał Woś, an MP from Sovereign Poland (Suwerenna Polska), a hard-right party led by former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro which is allied with the national-conservative PiS.

Bodnar wants Woś to face charges of abusing his power and abusing trust – crimes that can carry a prison sentence of between one and ten years – in relation to management of the Justice Fund.

Prokurator Generalny Adam Bodnar przekazał dzisiaj do Marszałka Sejmu RP Szymona Hołowni wniosek o wyrażenie przez Sejm RP zgody na pociągnięcie posła Michała Wosia do odpowiedzialności karnej.

Szczegóły w komunikacie: 🔽https://t.co/fEmslT99zU

— Prokuratura (@PK_GOV_PL) May 28, 2024

That fund is meant to be used by the justice ministry to support victims of crime, to prevent crime, and to rehabilitate criminals. But an investigation set up by Bodnar has found what it claims are numerous irregularities in the disbursement of funds, including their use for clearly political purposes.

The potential charges against Woś relate to his role as deputy justice minister in transferring 25 million zloty from the fund to the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) in order for the CBA to purchase Pegasus, powerful Israel-made spyware that allows the harvesting of data from mobile devices.

Last month, Bodnar revealed that hundreds of people had been surveilled using Pegasus during PiS’s time in power. Some of those targets were prominent opponents of the government, including the manager of the opposition’s election campaign in 2019.

In its statement today, Bodnar’s office claimed that money from the justice fund was transferred to the CBA despite “it being known that the [CBA] did not meet the conditions for obtaining such financial support”. Woś therefore failed to fulfil his duties regarding managing public funds.

Pegasus spyware was used to surveil 578 people under the former PiS government, reports the justice minister.

Though many targets were legitimate, there were also cases where Pegasus was used against figures „inconvenient” for PiS, says another minister https://t.co/JBxMTeUSxR

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 16, 2024

At a press conference today, Bodnar said that “a whole range of evidence has been collected” against Woś, including from witness statements and material obtained from the Supreme Audit Office (NIK).

However, criminal charges can only be brought against an MP if a majority of members of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, vote for them to be stripped of immunity.

Following today’s announcement, Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared in a social media post that this was only the “first request to waive immunity against a member of Ziobro’s group”. Bodnar also noted that further requests were being prepared.

Jest pierwszy wniosek o uchylenie immunitetu wobec członka zorganizowanej grupy Ziobry. Pierwszy.

— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) May 28, 2024

Meanwhile, the speaker of the Sejm, Szymon Hołownia – who is also a leader of one of the party’s in Tusk’s ruling coalition – told broadcaster TVN that a vote on waiving Woś’s immunity would likely take place in June.

“[Politicians] must be held accountable if they did something wrong,” said Hołownia. “There is something quintessentially disgusting in this scandal with the Justice Fund carried out by the United Right [the former PiS-led ruling coalition].”

“The fund, which was established to help the weakest among us, the wronged, victims of crime, was used as a party piggy bank or to eavesdrop on political opponents,” he added.

A justice ministry fund to support victims of crime was instead used for political purposes through rigged contests under the orders of former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, says an official who oversaw the fund.

Ziobro’s party has denied the claims https://t.co/Adgbk9lwT1

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) May 23, 2024

Following today’s announcement, Woś re-shared on public media a statement he made last week, when media reports first emerged that prosecutors would seek to strip him of immunity. He said it is “absurd” that he is accused of helping “Poland gain tools to fight criminals”.

What he did is in fact “a reason to be proud”, said Woś, adding that in any case “my actions and decisions have always been made in accordance with the law and public interest”.

Meanwhile, Jarosław Kaczyński, the leader of PiS, said that, while he was not yet familiar with the claims against Woś, the ruling coalition “invent all sorts of things, say all sorts of nonsense and then submit motions to waive immunities”, reports news website Niezależna.

Komentarz aktualny 🙂 https://t.co/e2lwXoWEY6

— Michał Woś (@MWosPL) May 28, 2024

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Main image credit: Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.