Nawrocki pardons. It is also requesting records in four new cases

President Karol Nawrocki applied the law of pardon to three people; at the same time, he did not apply this law to five people – said the president's spokesman, Rafał Leśkiewicz, on Monday. He added that the president requested the prosecutor general to present files in four other cases.

Leśkiewicz, in an entry on the X platform, informed that President Nawrocki, in his decisions of February 2, applied the law of pardon to three people. “When making decisions, the President of the Republic of Poland was guided by humanitarian considerations, positive opinions of the courts, as well as the requests of the Prosecutor General to exercise the right of pardon,” he pointed out.

The president's spokesman noted that Nawrocki, in his decision on Monday, did not apply the law of pardon to five people.

Moreover, as Leśkiewicz reported, the president signed four resolutions in which he “demanded the prosecutor general to present files in 4 cases.” The president did this – as Leśkiewicz added – on the basis of the provision of the Code of Criminal Procedure stating that “the prosecutor general presents the case files to the President of the Republic of Poland or initiates ex officio pardon proceedings in each case when the president decides so.”

The president's office did not provide the names of the pardoned people. However, in a statement she informed that one of them had been convicted of unintentionally causing a land traffic disaster, and the president had applied the law of pardon by conditionally suspending the execution of the prison sentence for a probation period.

It was emphasized that when pardoning this person, the president took into account, among others, humanitarian reasons – “the very difficult health situation of the convicted person, his advanced age, expression of remorse, apology to the victims, incidental nature of the act, positive opinion of the community.”

The second pardoned person – as we read in the next announcement – was convicted of criminal threats. It was added that the president used the law of pardon by remitting the prison sentence. It was argued that the president was guided by “the very difficult health situation and advanced age of the convicted person, the long date of committing the act and compliance with the legal order after the verdict.”

The third person to whom the president applied the law of pardon was convicted of the crime of “fraud, causing significant damage to business transactions, and harming creditors.” The statement added that the president applied the law of pardon by conditionally suspending the execution of the imposed prison sentence and placing the convict under the supervision of a probation officer during the designated probation period.

“When deciding to exercise the right of pardon, the President took into account primarily humanitarian considerations – a difficult family situation due to the serious illness of a loved one and the need to take care of them and minors, a positive opinion of the community intelligence, a significant passage of time since the crimes were committed, compliance with the legal order after the judgment is issued and the inability to use the protection measures provided for by the Executive Penal Code,” the press release said.

In the announcement regarding five people to whom the power of pardon was not applied, it was reported that the prosecutor general had requested the president not to use the power of pardon.

These are Nawrocki's first decisions regarding pardons since he took over as president.

The previous president, Andrzej Duda, pardoned 146 people during his two terms and refused to grant clemency to 970 people; among presidents, he used the power of pardon the least often. The most people were pardoned by Aleksander Kwaśniewski, who served for two terms – a total of 4,302 people. Lech Wałęsa applied the law of pardon to 3,454 people. Bronisław Komorowski pardoned 360 people and Lech Kaczyński pardoned 201 people. (PAP)

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