06-03-2025
Polish lawmakers lift Kaczyński's immunity in defamation case
Polish lawmakers voted on Thursday to lift nationalist opposition leader Jarosław Kaczyński's immunity from prosecution in a defamation case.
The PAP news agency reported that 236 members of parliament voted in favour of the authorization for prosecution, while 200 voted against.
The lifting of immunity was based on a private lawsuit filed by Krzysztof Brejza, a member of the European Parliament, against Kaczyński.
The politician from the ruling centre-right Civic Platform said that statements made by the leader of the Law and Justice party before a committee of inquiry have defamed him.
The committee was investigating the so-called Pegasus affair.
Critics accuse the Law and Justice government, which was voted out of office in 2023, of using the Pegasus spyware to monitor members of the opposition.
Brejza was allegedly affected by the phone surveillance.
Kaczyński is said to have justified this before the committee by claiming that Brejza committed "very serious and extremely repulsive crimes."
