Polish President Andrzej Duda announced Thursday that he plans to once again pardon two senior politicians who were arrested in his presidential palace earlier this week, in a case that is at the center of a standoff between Poland's new government and its conservative predecessor.
The development comes before a planned protest in Warsaw organized by the now opposition party Law and Justice, which held power for eight years until last month and is closely aligned with Duda.
Law and Justice, frustrated over its recent loss of power, urged its supporters to protest moves by the new pro-European Union government to take control of state media. It also said it was protesting the arrests Tuesday of two senior members of Law and Justice, former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski and his former deputy, Maciej Wasik.
Kamiński and Wasik were convicted of abuse of power for actions taken in 2007, when they served in an earlier Law and Justice-led government. Duda pardoned them in 2015, although legal experts argued that the pardons weren't legal because presidential pardons are reserved for cases that have gone through all appeals.
In June, Poland's Supreme Court overturned the pardons and ordered a retrial. Kaminski and Wasik were sentenced in December to two years in prison. Police on Tuesday arrested them while they were in Duda's presidential palace, where they had received protection for much of the day.
Duda had long maintained that his first contentious pardons in 2015 were legal, and that he didn't need to pardon them again. But on Thursday, he said he was once again initiating clemency proceedings for the two men at the request of their wives.
His announcement came shortly before a planned protest organized by Law and Justice, which governed for eight years before losing October's parliamentary election. They called it a protest of "Free Poles" in defense of democracy and free media, although during the party's time in power, Poland's international media freedom ranking fell significantly.
Emotions have been riding high over an escalating standoff between the current and the previous government.
The protest was called for the same day that a contentious chamber of the Supreme Court, still controlled by Law and Justice, ruled that the October election was valid. The election had a record nationwide turnout of more than 74% and gave power to a coalition of parties opposed to Law and Justice.
The new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is set on reversing some policies of its populist predecessor, including ones that brought conflict with the EU, such as changes that put Poland's justice system under political control.
In one of its first steps, Tusk's government moved to take control of state television, radio and news agency PAP, which Law and Justice turned into tools of aggressive propaganda against its critics and against Tusk personally.
Leaders of the former government maintain that Tusk's moves were illegal and have staged occupations of the media premises, saying they are defending free media and democratic norms. Commentators say Law and Justice wants to keep control of the nationwide broadcasters before local administration elections this spring.
The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights in Warsaw said that the manner in which the new government has taken control of state media "raises serious legal doubts."
While in power, Law and Justice was repeatedly accused by law experts of violating Poland's legal order and the rule of law.
