Ex-head of Polish security agency forcibly brought to testify to Pegasus spyware commission

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The former head of Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW), who served under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government, was today detained by police and forcibly brought to testify before a parliamentary commission investigating the use of Pegasus spyware.

It was the first time in the history of the Sejm, the more powerful house of Poland’s parliament, that a witness has been compelled to appear in this manner, notes news website Onet.

The former official in question, Piotr Pogonowski, led the ABW from 2016 to 2020. During that time, the then PiS government purchased Pegasus – a powerful tool for harvesting data from mobile devices – from its Israeli manufacturer for use by another agency, the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA).

The system was subsequently used to surveil almost 600 people between 2017 and 2022, some of whom were opponents of PiS, notably the head of the main opposition’s parliamentary election campaign in 2019.

After a new ruling coalition replaced PiS in late 2023, prosecutors launched investigations into the use of Pegasus under the previous administration and parliament set up a special commission to do the same.

However, PiS figures have been refusing to appear before it, pointing to a Constitutional Tribunal (TK) interim order and later full ruling finding the commission unlawful. But the government regards the TK itself as an illegitimate body and does not recognise its rulings.

Pogonowski has previously been summoned to appear before the commission three times but has refused to comply. This morning, the spokesman for Poland’s security services announced that a court had ordered Pogonowski to be detained and forcibly brought to give testimony.

When the former ABW chief did subsequently appear before the commission, he declared that he had been brought there “illegally”. A commotion also broke out when two PiS MPs tried to attend the hearing but were ejected after disrupting proceedings, reports broadcaster TVN.

Asked about when he first learned of the Pegasus system, Pogonowski claimed that he did so from media reports. However, he later clarified that he was referring to when he first heard the name “Pegasus”, not necessarily the system itself, reports Onet.

Pogonowski noted at this stage and repeatedly during the hearing that he is prevented by law from publicly discussing aspects of the work of the ABW and other agencies that are covered by official secrecy.

As a result, he refused to give direct and specific answers to many of the questions asked during the public part of the hearing.

However, speaking more generally, he said that it was vital that the security services are “equipped with the latest tools” and that, “thanks to the use of such technology, we managed to protect Poland from real terrorist and espionage threats, but also against common crimes”.

After around three and a half hours, the commission’s chair, Magdalena Sroka, announced a break and said that they would resume afterwards in a session closed to the public.

Last month, justice minister Adam Bodnar filed a request to parliament for his PiS predecessor, Zbigniew Ziobro, to be detained and forcibly brought before the commission to testify.

Ziobro has been refusing summons both on the basis of the TK’s decision and also because he has been undergoing treatment for cancer. However, today the politician held his first press conference in over a year.

He condemned the treatment of Pogonowski as a “crime” and said that his detention was like “practices straight from the dark communist era”. However, interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak declared that it showed “everyone is equal before the law”.

Ziobro also announced that he would appear on Tuesday before a separate parliamentary committee that is considering Bodnar’s request for Ziobro to be forcibly brought before the Pegasus commission.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Slawomir Kaminski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.