Polish MEP sues Poland to ECHR, accuses of torture

4 months ago 23

New hard-right Polish MEP Mariusz Kamiński announced he would sue Poland to the European Parliament, saying he was tortured in jail after being sentenced for office abuse.

Arriving in Strasbourg for the first plenary session of the European Parliament, newly-elected Polish MEP Kamiński used the momentum to announce on Wednesday (17 July) that he would take Poland to the European Court of Human Rights, based in the same city, for the torture he allegedly suffered in prison.

“It is shocking that in the 21st century, in a country that is a member of the democratic (European) Union, one could speak of the tortures being applied against the members of democratic opposition,” Kamiński said.

Before running for the European Parliament in June, Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, former ministers in the conservative PiS (ECR) government that lost power in Poland at the end of 2024, were convicted of abuse of office and sentenced to two years in prison.

Their arrest sparked a wave of protests among PiS supporters, who saw them as political prisoners illegally persecuted by the current government of Donald Tusk.

Kamiński went on hunger strike while in custody, claiming that he had been force-fed, which he described as torture. The prison service denied doing anything to violate the prisoner’s dignity.

In the end, Kamiński and Wąsik were pardoned by President Andrzej Duda, a former PiS member accused of favouring his old party.

After their release from prison, the two pardoned men decided to run for the European Parliament, capitalising on the popularity they had gained among PiS voters during their imprisonment. Both won their mandates and are now two of 20 PiS MEPs representing the European Conservatives and Reformists group.

Describing the physical violence to which he claimed to have been subjected, he pointed out that he was repeatedly restrained with belts and that, despite medical contraindications, half-metre tubes were inserted through his nose in order to feed him.

Kamiński also claimed to have received a letter from the Polish Ombudsman, Marcin Wiącek, who allegedly stated that the forced feeding was not justified.

However, Wiącek denied raising objections to the conditions of Kamiński’s imprisonment.

“We assessed the conditions in which Mr. Mariusz Kamiński was imprisoned (to be) in accordance with the law,” he said in January.

In the event that the life of the convict is in serious danger, as stated by at least two doctors, the necessary medical procedure can be performed, including surgery, even despite the convict’s objection, the prison service said in a statement, dispelling Kamiński’s accusations.

“The Prison Service has developed appropriate procedures to ensure the good health of the convict,” the statement reads.

(Aleksandra Krzysztoszek | Euractiv.pl)