The former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland was ordered to be forced to be fed in prison

The former Minister of Internal Affairs of Poland, Mariusz Kaminski, will be force-fed in prison. This was announced by the President of Poland Andrzej Duda at the International Economic Forum in Davos. Kaminsky has been on hunger strike for a week in protest against the sentence handed down to him in the case of exceeding his powers.

Duda emphasized that he considers Kaminsky and his deputy, Macei Vonsik, who was arrested together with him, to be political prisoners, and their persecution is illegal. According to him, Kamynskyi and Vonsyk were honest civil servants and “mercilessly fought against corruption.”

Duda reported that the decision to force-feed Kaminsky was made by a Polish court on Wednesday, as his condition threatens his life and health. The President called on the Prosecutor General of Poland, Adam Bodnar, to release Kaminski and Wonsyk.

Kaminsky announced a hunger strike immediately after being imprisoned on January 10. On January 9, after the arrest, this was done by his former deputy Macei Vonsyk. Both of them were sentenced to two years in prison for exceeding their official powers.

• The history of the prosecution of Kaminsky and Vonsik dates back more than 10 years. He is accused of abuse of office in 2007, when Kaminsky headed the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau. In 2015, both were sentenced to three years in prison, but Andrzej Duda, who also held the post of the country’s president at the time, made a decision to pardon them even before the sentence entered into force.
• After a number of reviews of the circumstances of the case, the Supreme Court in December 2023 overturned the pardon decision and sentenced the former heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to two years in prison. On January 9, they were arrested in the presidential palace.
• The criminal prosecution of Kaminsky and Vonsik exacerbated the friction between President Duda and the newly elected Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, who declared that the president was obstructing justice by harboring criminals. On January 11, tens of thousands of Poles demonstrated in Warsaw, expressing dissatisfaction with the policies of Tusk and his cabinet.