Zbigniew Ziobro did not appear on Thursday for questioning in front of the Pegasus committee of inquiry. The Commission will mention him to court for fines. Ziobro later stated that the aviso of the call for questioning had a deadline for receipt by the end of the day of the post office's work on Thursday.
The Parliamentary Committee of enquiry for Pegasus at its gathering at 12 p.m. intended to interview the erstwhile Minister of Justice - the lawyer General, now MP of the Law and Justice; this was the sixth effort to question him.
"Zbigniew Ziobro did not appear to be on the deadline for the committee of inquiry, nor was there any justification given, or any another information from Mr Zbigniew Ziobro concerning his absence today" - said the president of the committee Magdalena Sroka (PSL-TD).
Vice-President Tomasz Trela (Levice) assessed that "there must be no illusions or doubts" that Ziobro is doing absolutely anything to "avoid the questions asked and answer the Pegasus committee".
"Bunchy announcements, statements in the media that he has nothing to hide, that he may appear, that he can testify, of course they have no confirmation in facts. Today, the place for the witness is an empty place, means that Zbigniew Ziobro at 21.30, at 21.45 (Wednesday - PAP) was in the building of the Sejm, took part in the voting, was in good shape, seemed in good health, and present he again chickened out and refused to attest before the committee" - said Trela.
He besides requested that the committee address a request to the territory Court in Warsaw for a fine against Ziobra, which was accepted.
"And so that we should consistently act as in the case of those delinquents who do not put themselves on the committee, we will most likely finish this application to court for detention and forced delivery" - said Trela.
Przemysław Wipler (Confederation) asked erstwhile precisely a call for a gathering of the committee was sent. "Is it possible that he has time to receive a registered letter calling him to the committee present for the remainder of the day? possibly he inactive has time to receive the call" - said Wipler.
Answering this question, Magdalena Magoka said that "there is no uncertainty that Zbigniew Ziobro knew perfectly well that present was the date of the hearing." She added that "this information reached him first at home on April 7".
Ziobro in the afternoon wrote on X that "the illegal Pegasus committee is acting so ridiculously ineptly" that they can't even deliver his calls effectively. "The aviso concerning today's proceeding at 12 p.m. includes a deadline for receipt ... present until the end of the post office's work. And only just before closing the message was received" - he said. "Members of this committee will hear charges sooner or later – for trying to illegally deprive me of my liberty and grossly exceeding my powers" - added PiS politician.
The committee representatives reported that they would inform on the next date of the proceeding of Zbigniew Ziobra.
The Commission planned to perceive to Ziobra for the last time on 31 January; this was the 5th attempt. After he failed to attend the sitting respective times, the committee asked the court to detain the associate and bring him to the hearing. The Sejm waived his immunity for this purpose, and the territory Court in Warsaw agreed. Police stopped Ziobra on the day of the committee of enquiry gathering after 10.30 p.m. erstwhile he finished giving an interview at the office of the tv Republic. The proceeding of the committee of enquiry was scheduled to begin at 10.30 p.m.; as Ziobry was not in the Chamber until this hour, the committee of enquiry considered that it was ineffective to bring the minister b.m. and decided to request him to apply the order punishment until 30 days of detention.
On March 31, the Warsaw territory Court did not take into account the application for detention against the erstwhile head of MS. The court spokeswoman justice Anna Ptaśek then informed that "the committee withdrew from the anticipation of proceeding the witness, despite being brought to the committee". Ziobro himself repeatedly stressed that he did not defy stopping on 31 January and judged that the committee of enquiry did not want to question him erstwhile he closed the sitting erstwhile he was already on his way to them. In addition, the erstwhile Minister of Justice, like another PiS politicians, believes that the Sejm of the Committee of enquiry is acting illegally and recalls the Constitutional Court's ruling on the unconstitutionality of setting up a Pegasus committee.
The Commission is investigating whether the usage of Pegasus surveillance software by the government, peculiar services and police at the time erstwhile the PiS ruled was lawful. The Commission is besides to find who was liable for buying Pegasus and akin tools for Polish authorities. According to information provided by NIK, the Pegasus strategy was purchased in the autumn of 2017 for CBA, from funds derived in the main part (25 million PLN) from the Justice Fund (supervised by the Ministry of Justice).(PAP)
