Poland asks EU Parliament to strip opposition politician of immunity in email hacking case

Prosecutor general Adam Bodnar has submitted a request to the European Parliament to allow criminal proceedings to be brought against Michał Dworczyk for alleged offences committed while he was a member of Poland’s former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

The case in question relates to a scandal that saw emails allegedly from Dworczyk’s private inbox hacked and leaked online. The emails came from a period when Dworczyk served as a government minister and chief of staff to PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

Bodnar, who is also justice minister in the new government that replaced PiS in power in December, says evidence gathered by prosecutors indicates Dworczyk committed the crimes of failing to fulfil obligations as a state official, acting to the detriment of the public interest, and obstructing criminal proceedings.

Prokurator Generalny Adam Bodnar przekazał dziś do Przewodniczącej Parlamentu Europejskiego Roberty Metsoli wniosek o wyrażenie zgody na pociągnięcie do odpowiedzialności karnej posła do Parlamentu Europejskiego Michała Dworczyka.https://t.co/Mr7i9oa7S0

— Prokuratura (@PK_GOV_PL) August 29, 2024

A spokeswoman for Bodnar’s office said that Dworczyk is accused of unlawfully “using an uncertified and unsecured private email box for conducting correspondence” that contained classified information, including material relating to state security.

She added that the obstruction of justice accusation relates to Dworczyk ordering the permanent deletion of messages from his inbox. That could have “helped the perpetrator of the hacker attack avoid criminal liability”.

Prosecutors have not identified who was behind the hacking. When Dworczyk’s emails first began to be leaked in 2021, the PiS government blamed Russia for it.

Many of the leaked emails contained material embarrassing for the government. Some included sensitive information, for example relating to Poland’s air defence system. However, the PiS government refused to confirm or deny the authenticity of the leaked emails, and suggested that some were falsified.

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Last year, while PiS was still in power, prosecutors launched an investigation into whether Dworczyk had shared state secrets via his unsecured private email account.

In June this year, Bodnar asked the Polish parliament to strip Dworczyk of immunity from prosecution. However, two days later, Dworczyk was elected to the European Parliament, meaning a new request had to be issued to that institution.

The application will now be considered by the European Parliament’s legal affairs committee, before which Dworczyk can present his arguments. The committee then refers the issue to the main chamber of the parliament along with its own recommendation on how to proceed.

The European Parliament could in theory vote in October, but is more likely to do so in November, December or even next year, according to Maciej Sokołowski, Brussels correspondent for broadcaster TVN. Last November, the European Parliament stripped four PiS MEPs of immunity to face hate-crime charges.

A court has ordered the release of an opposition MP who was detained over alleged crimes committed while serving in the former government.

It did so after the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly confirmed he has immunity as a member of the assembly https://t.co/rzQtbtfTBb

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) July 17, 2024

Since replacing PiS in office in December, the new ruling coalition has pledged to hold members of the former government to account for a variety of alleged abuses during their time in power. Two former government ministers have already been stripped of immunity by the Polish parliament.

PiS, however, argues that the cases being brought against it are simply “political revenge” by the new administration and an attempt to destroy the opposition.

In response to news of today’s request to the European Parliament, Dworczyk called it an “absurd action, motivated by purely political reasons”.

W związku z dzisiejszym wnioskiem pana min. Bodnara odsyłam do swojego stanowiska w tej sprawie. To absurdalne działanie, motywowane czysto politycznymi pobudkami ⤵️ https://t.co/h3MEktz3m5

— Michał Dworczyk (@michaldworczyk) August 29, 2024

Main image credit: Adam Guz/KPRM (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.