Polish top court rules presidential pardon not premature

The Constitutional Tribunal on Tuesday said that the president can pardon someone against whom a ruling is still subject to appeal, and that the pardon means legal proceedings against the person are closed.

“The pardon is the prerogative of the president and the president does not have to consult with anyone in that case,” Constitutional Tribunal judge Grzegorz Jędrejek said.

But one of the court’s other justices, Leon Kieres, disagreed.

The Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling comes weeks after Poland’s Supreme Court said former anti-corruption agency chief Mariusz Kamiński had been pardoned prematurely because his jail sentence was still being appealed.

In 2013, Law and Justice (PiS) MP Kamiński – who served as head of Poland's anti-corruption agency from 2006 and 2009 – was found guilty of overstepping his powers.

He was sentenced to three years in prison and was banned from holding public office for ten years.

Polish President Andrzej Duda pardoned Kamiński in 2015, even though he was still appealing his sentence at the time. The case against Kamiński was then discontinued.

A Supreme Court judge said that the president had interfered in the legal process because Kamiński was proven neither innocent nor guilty when he was pardoned, making a future ruling redundant.

The judge said that the president can pardon someone after any final appeal has been heard “because then he is not interfering with the judiciary”.

Kamiński was found guilty of overstepping his powers over the Central Anti-corruption Bureau's investigation of the so-called land scandal in 2007.

The anti-corruption agency allegedly conducted a sting operation in which bribes were paid for the zoning change of agricultural land into residential plots, which led to then-Deputy Prime Minister Andrzej Lepper being dismissed and the collapse of the coalition government of the time.

Duda's decision to pardon Kamiński while he was still appealing his case was unprecedented.

In 2015, Duda said that people who fought against corruption deserved special protection. (vb/pk)

Source: PAP, IAR