According to media reports, last Friday (July 11), Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a decision to pardon Robert Bąkiewicz. The spokesperson for the Prosecutor General, Prosecutor Anna Adamiak, stated that “the pardon covers the penalty of restriction of liberty.” The Chancellery of the President has not commented on the matter.
As previously reported, on Thursday Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar announced the revocation of the suspension of the sentence against Robert Bąkiewicz. The case concerns a 2023 court ruling that sentenced Bąkiewicz to one year of unpaid community service for “violating the bodily integrity” of well-known activist Katarzyna Augustynek, along with an order to pay her compensation of 10,000 PLN.
The sentence had been suspended due to a pardon request initiated by former Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro. As Bodnar noted, “there has been no official decision from the president regarding the pardon to this day.” However, that’s not all. One of the arguments for enforcing the punishment was that “we can all see how the convicted person has behaved since the verdict was issued.” Bodnar’s Thursday decision sparked controversy in legal circles, with most commentators suggesting the move could be seen as politically motivated retaliation.
Decision by the President
Today, media outlets reported that one day after Bodnar’s announcement, President Andrzej Duda partially pardoned Robert Bąkiewicz.
“The President signed a decision granting a pardon with respect to the penalty that was final and binding. (…) The pardon covers the penalty of restriction of liberty,” Prosecutor General’s spokesperson Anna Adamiak told Interia.
However, Bąkiewicz will still be required to pay the compensation ordered by the court to the activist known as “Grandma Kasia.”
Presidential Chancellery Declines to Comment
When asked to confirm reports about Bąkiewicz’s pardon, presidential spokesperson Diana Głownia emphasized that the Presidential Chancellery is not authorized to provide information on pending or concluded pardon proceedings.
She noted that, according to administrative court rulings, the pardon process is of a special nature, concerns the individual case of a private person, and falls within the exclusive prerogatives of the President of the Republic of Poland.
She also pointed out that “the transparency of this process—both during court and prosecutorial proceedings and during the stage before the President—is limited, even with respect to the parties involved.”