Further to the media reports on the illegal purchase of the “Pegasus”surveillance system, with funding from the Victim Aid and Post-Penitentiary Assistance Fund, we call on all political fractions to immediately appoint a parliamentary inquiry committee, pursuant to Article 111 of the Constitution, to verify the veracity of the information on the purchase and the use of the system to date.

If the media reports prove to be true, we would be dealing with one of the biggest legal scandals and abuses of power since Poland fully regained independence in 1989, as it would mean that several tens of millions of zlotys of public money earmarked for providing assistance to victims of crime have been illegally spent to allow the illegal surveillance of people considered to be opponents of the ruling camp.

The possible confirmation of the media information would mean that substantial financial resources have been illegally used, among others, by Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro, to deprive Polish citizens of such rights guaranteed by the Constitution as the protection of private life (Article 47 of the Constitution), the protection of the secrecy of communications (Article 49), the right not to disclose information about oneself (Article 51). The bugging of Roman Giertych, a practicinglawyer, may have violated the right to a defence (Article 42, para. 2). The surveillance of Senator Krzysztof Brejza during the period when he was the chief of staff of the largest opposition party undermines the reliability of the outcome of the 2019 parliamentary elections, as it grossly violated the principle of equality of elections (Article 96, para. 2) by putting the ruling camp in a significantly better position than the opposition groups.

Doubts about the legality of the use of the “Pegasus” system and subjecting it to real judicial control are all the more justified given that Mariusz Kamiński, who has been working as the coordinator of the special services since 2015, had been sentenced to unconditional imprisonment in the past in a non-final court judgment for, among other things, the abuse of power with the use of operational techniques. The use of illegal surveillance may be a prelude to the more or less overt persecution of opposition groups, which can currently be observed in full bloom in Turkey and Belarus.

Equally serious doubts are raised by the fact that the operator of the “Pegasus” spy system is a company operating in Israel, which could allow the secret services of another country to gain access to information obtained with the use of this system.

In the light of the above, the position expressed by the Chief Public Finance Discipline Commissioner and simultaneously an active politician of the ruling camp, Piotr Patkowski, in his decision of 14 September 2020 rejecting the motion of the Supreme Audit Office to declare that public finance discipline has been breached in connection with the purchase of the “Pegasus” system, from which it arises that public finance discipline was only breached to a “negligible” extent, is unacceptable. This decision is contradicted both by the significant amount of money spent illegally and by the extensive breach of fundamental civil rights and freedoms caused by this expenditure, which undermines the foundations of democracy in Poland.

We are of the opinion that, since both the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the control bodies at the Ministry of Finance are currently under the full control of the ruling camp, only a parliamentary committee consisting of representatives of various political camps would be able to properly and objectively explain the ambiguities surrounding the purchase and use of the “Pegasus” system.