Braun, Obajtek and what will they lose your immunity? The Union initiates the opening procedure

The European Parliament began on Monday a procedure for repealing the immunity of MEPs Grzegorz Braun (Confederation of the Polish Crown), Daniel Obajtek and Patryk Jaki (PiS). The chairwoman of the EP Robert Metsool sent applications on Monday to the PE Legal Committee.

She informed about this decision after the start of the European Parliament session in Strasbourg.

At the end of July, the then Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar sent a request to the MetSoli to the EP's immunity to be repealed by Obajtek. Earlier, the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office applied for this. The document concerns two cases: suspected false testimonies before the court about his acquaintance with journalist Piotr Nichator and about the withdrawal from the sale at the Orlen stations of one issue of the weekly “Nie”, at a time when Obajtek was the president of Orlen.

As reported, the first of the cases was submitted to the prosecutor's office by journalist Grzegorz Jakubowski in connection with the trial before the District Court for Warsaw-Śródmieście initiated by a private indictment. In the notification, Jakubowski accused Obajtek with a lie delivered to the court on May 11, 2023. He referred to recordings of 2018. Published in March 2024 by Onet, which is to testify to the informal contacts of Obajtek with a nicherte – contrary to what he testified in court.

The second case concerns the withdrawal in March 2023. From all ORLN sales points of one of the numbers of the weekly “NO”.

Obajtek referred to this case in July. “As for the allegations: I explained everything in the prosecutor's office. The recordings are assembled. As for the other: withdrawal of one issue of the weekly” I do not “think as appropriate as possible, because it offended religious feelings, the cross and Saint John Paul II” – the former head of Orlen wrote on platform X. The entry was joined by a photo of the cover of the weekly “NO” weekly, which decided to withdraw. “If I have to lose my immunity, I take it proudly,” he noted.

In the case concerning Braun, the application was forwarded to the new prosecutor general, Waldemar Żurek. It concerns criminal liability in connection with public denial of crimes committed in the German Nazi camp of KL Auschwitz.

It is two statements of Grzegorz Braun, who on July 10 on Radio WNET and July 14 as part of the podcast “Jan Pospieszalski talks” on the YouTube channel questioned the genocide in gas chambers in the German Nazi Auschwitz camp.

The initiation of criminal proceedings by the IPN investigator's division took place after the notifications submitted in this matter by the left MP Anna Maria Żukowska, Director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum dr. Piotr Cywiński, president of the Basta Bartosz Staszewski Foundation, as well as after the analysis of materials from the Warsaw Śródmieście -Północ District Prosecutor's Office, which from July 10 conducted checking activities regarding Braun's statements.

According to Polish Radio, in the case of Patryk, which is about a lawsuit about the protection of personal rights, which was filed by judge Igor Tuleya, demanding an apology for the public claim that as a judge he consciously gave permission to survey Pegasus.

Each application to repeal immunity is addressed to the PE's legal committee, which prepares a report on this subject. The commission is not obliged by any dates to prepare this document, but it usually lasts several months. Then the application is filed for voting at a plenary session.

PE decides to repeal immunity by an ordinary majority of votes.

From Brussels Łukasz Osiński (PAP)

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