Maciej Wąsik lost his lawsuit. He had no grounds to defame the activists and claim that they acted in support of Russia

23 February 2024 | Author: Michał Wojtczuk

“He used to make allegations that we were Russian agents, working for Russia and involved in financial crimes. His acts were cynical and politically motivated,” says Bartosz Kramek, an activist who won a defamation lawsuit brought against the former MP of the Law and Justice Party, and the former Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration.

“The Court fully recognized our claims, ordering Maciej Wasik to publish a letter of apology and pay compensation to my wife, me and our Foundation – a total of PLN 30,000. The case was politically motivated, and constituted one of the battlefronts in the conflict between the former government and the Open Dialogue Foundation,” says Bartosz Kramek of

ODF in his interview with “Wyborcza”.

On Friday the Warsaw Court of Appeals issued a decision upholding the first-instance judgment, stating that there was no basis for such allegations as those made publicly in 2018 by Maciej Wąsik, the then-Law and Justice MP and Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration. The court ruled that his comments damaged the reputation of Bartosz Kramek, his wife Lyudmyla Kozlovska and the Open Dialogue Foundation.

The Law and Justice government’s targeting of the Open Dialogue Foundation

The affair started with a post on social media in July 2017 entitled: “Let the State Come to a Stop: Let’s Shut Down the Government!”. In this publication, Bartosz Kramek, accused the Law and Justice (PiS) government of “eastern-style destruction of public life and the state system.” For Law and Justice, he, his wife Lyudmyla Kozlovska and their Open Dialogue Foundation became public enemies.

“Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński unleashed a smear and propaganda campaign against us. Mr. Wąsik, when addressing media supporting the government of the day, such as TVP, TV Republika and wPolsce.pl, accused us of conducting anti-Polish activities, implying that we were Russian agents, acting for Russia and involved in financial crimes. The Internal Security Agency, which was then under their superintendence, contrived my wife’s expulsion from Poland. Kamiński and Wąsik treated the state as their private farm, and used the power entrusted to them in a vindictive and repressive way,” explains Kramek.

All the allegations were made public by the mass media machine favouring the Law and Justice government. For example, “Gazeta Polska” weekly put a photomontage on its cover, pasting Bartosz Kramek’s face onto an image of a Wehrmacht soldier breaking down a Polish border barrier (Kramek also sued them, and won the case). Also, TVP must publish its apology for violating Kramek’s and Kozlovska’s personal rights.

The brother made lanterns, which means he was a weapons manufacturer

“Maciej Wąsik used to make false accusations against us in public, being an opinion-maker, in this case, in the negative sense of the term. We pointed out in court that by virtue of his position he should pay special attention to the words he utters,” says the activist.

In 2019, a civil lawsuit was filed against Wąsik. The first-instance judgment was rendered in 2022. Oko.press news service quoted testimony given by Wąsik at the trial. Wąsik claimed he did not remember much, contradicted his earlier statements, and referred to media reports, which he interpreted in his own way (e.g. the information that Kozlovska’s brother once produced illumination and lighting products in Crimea, which he was supposed to supply to the Russian navy, among others, was distorted by Wąsik, who claimed that he in fact was operating an arms business). The first-instance judgment was upheld in its entirety by the Court of Appeals in Warsaw on Friday, as first reported by wp.pl news service.

Bartosz Kramek, “A bitter taste of victory after four years”

”Today’s judgment gives us a bitter taste of victory, also due to the duration of the trial. We had to calibrate our claims to match the jurisprudence of Polish courts. I believe that the compensation amounts, in order to have their educational effect, should be significantly higher,” says Bartosz Kramek to “Wyborcza”.

“The slander on Mr. Wąsik’s part was particularly cynical and perfidious. After all, it is like accusing a firefighter of being a pyromaniac. My wife is Ukrainian, we were at Euromaidan, we do support Ukraine and the Ukrainian army in their fight against Russian aggression from the very start. Our Foundation has already donated humanitarian aid in the amount of nearly PLN 40 million,” says Kramek.

We asked Maciej Wąsik for his follow-up comment. However, he did not respond to our text message.

The Court revoked the ban on Lyudmyla Kozlovska’s entry to Poland

In 2018, the then-head of the Internal Security Agency entered Lyudmyla Kozlovska, Bartosz Kramek’s wife, into the Schengen Information System. Kozlovska became an undesirable person in Poland. “I was expelled from Poland at the personal request of Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński, who controlled the Polish services,” this is how Kozlovska recalls those events today,

The activist couple waged a long legal battle to undo the effects of that particular decision. More than a year ago, the Supreme Administrative Court overturned the decisions of, among others, the head of the Office for Foreigners in Kozlovska’s case, stressing that the material collected on her, both classified and public, did not allow the conclusion that Kozlovska posed any threat to state security.

After nearly six years, in December 2023, the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw issued a decision obliging the head of the Office for Foreigners to remove Lyudmyla Kozlovska from the list of undesirable persons in Poland.

Bartosz Kramek stresses that the head of the Office for Foreigners has not filed a cassation against the ruling. “We are now waiting for the verdict to become final,” he says.

This was yet another final conviction in the case of Maciej Wąsik. In December 2023. Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński were both finally convicted of abuse of power as then-heads of the Central Anticorruption Bureau in connection with the so-called land scandal in 2007.

They both went to jail, served two weeks and then, Andrzej Duda, President of Poland, pardoned them and ordered their convictions erased. They are now allowed to run as candidates in elections (rumours say they will be Law and Justice’s candidates in this year’s elections to the European Parliament). Yet that does not change the fact that they were both convicted and lost their parliamentary seats. The Law and Justice Party does not take this to heart.

Source: wyborcza.pl

Read also:

Defamation case win against Wąsik. Court hands down final judgement (February 23, 2024)

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