New troubles for Wąsik: court issues final judgement

23 February 2024 | Author: Olga Papiernik

The judgement of the first instance court regarding Maciej Wąsik, former deputy minister of internal affairs and administration, who was sued by the Open Dialogue Foundation, has been upheld by the Court of Appeals in Warsaw. The judgement is final and legally binding.

A lawsuit against Maciej Wąsik, former deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Administration, was filed by the Open Dialogue Foundation. The Foundation claimed that Wąsik had violated its personal rights. The dispute concerned statements made by Wąsik in which he talked about the alleged sources of funding for the Foundation, accused it of having ties with Russia and carrying out “hybrid activities”, and accused Bartosz Kramek, a member of the Foundation, of inciting a coup d’état in Poland.

In 2022, the court of first instance ordered Maciej Wąsik to issue a statement apologising for his comments towards the foundation. Wąsik was also ordered to pay PLN 10,000 each to Lyudmyla Kozlovska, Bartosz Kramek and the Foundation. The decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal in Warsaw.

Judgement against Wąsik

The final judgement comes more than four years after the lawsuit was filed and more than five years after Maciej Wąsik’s first defamatory statements. As the court of first instance already noted, Wąsik used defamation in the political interest of his own party. During the previous court hearings, he tried to soften the tone of his words and hid behind a failure to recall. Earlier, he had referred to secret documents of the Internal Security Agency and supported the ‘pasquinade’ revelations of pro-government media, which were intended to justify my wife’s expulsion from Poland – while ignoring the fact that they had been repeatedly refuted by the courts and deemed unreliable by other European Union countries,’ commented Bartosz Kramek, Chair of the ODF’s Supervisory Board, in an interview with “Wirtualna Polska”.

“This is just the beginning, our judicial opponent is responsible for numerous abuses, not only from the time of the first PiS government and the early days of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, but also attacks on individuals and organisations that advocate for the rule of law and human rights. He is responsible for illegal surveillance and the inhumane treatment of refugees on the border with Belarus. It is their blood he has on his hands. And I hope that also for this he will soon be held criminally responsible, together with Kamiński and the whole gang,” said Kramek.

Source: dziennik.pl

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

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