2024-03-15 14:15 update: 2024-03-17, 14:33
Photo PAP/Paweł Supernak
The parliamentary commission investigating the alleged use of the Pegasus spyware by the previous Law and Justice (PiS)-dominated government has fined Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the PiS leader, before witnessing.
The new pro-EU coalition government accused PiS, when it was in government, of purchasing Pegasus from the Israeli firm NSO to spy on people linked with the then opposition, citing reports from Citizen Lab, a specialised unit at the University of Toronto, phone maker Apple and Amnesty International.
Pegasus can be used to gain access to information stored on smartphones and eavesdrop on conversations.
Kaczynski was one of the first key figures from the previous government to testify in front of the commission.
The hearing started with verbal altercations triggered by Kaczynski's incomplete oath. He declared to tell the whole truth but did not repeat the rest of the oath: "not hiding anything as far as I am aware."
Kaczynski invoked Article 11e of the Parliamentary Investigative Commission Act, which says that the witness cannot reveal information disclosed as 'secret' or 'top secret' without the relevant authority's permission.
"I am not promising to say everything I know, because I simply cannot do so without permission from the prime minister," he explained.
The commission ruled to turn to the District Court to impose a fine on Kaczynski for taking an incomplete oath. (PAP)
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