Polish opposition politician to face trial over Pegasus spyware purchase

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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.

Opposition politician Michał Woś will face trial for his role in the allegedly unlawful purchase of Pegasus spyware when he was a deputy justice minister in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government,

Woś was today indicted by prosecutors for abuse of power and misappropriation of public funds, and faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted. But he rejects the accusations, claiming to be a victim of “political repression” by the current government.

The charges relate to a decision made in 2017 to transfer 25 million zloty (€5.9 million) from the Justice Fund – which was meant to be used by the justice ministry to support victims of crime – to the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) to purchase Pegusus from its Israeli producer.

Prosecutors say that Woś did so despite knowing that the CBA did not meet legal criteria to receive such funds.

He is also accused of failing to oversee the allocation and accounting of the funds, which prevented proper verification of how the money was spent, resulted in losses to the public finances, and deprived intended beneficiaries of the fund.

The purchase of Pegasus, a powerful tool that allows the harvesting of data from mobile devices, was particularly controversial because it was used against political opponents of the PiS government.

Woś, who was last year stripped of parliamentary immunity in order to face charges, has consistently rejected the allegations against him. In a statement after the indictment was announced today, he wrote that the funding for the purchase of Pegasus “was fully legal” and claimed to be a victim of “political repression”.

“Pegasus was used to fight crime, so no wonder that [Prime Minister Donald] Tusk and [justice minister Waldemar] Żurek…are allergic to such a tool,” he said. “Just as criminals dislike the police, criminals of all stripes dislike crime detection tools.”

“If I had to make a decision today to finance equipment for the CBA again, I would do it again,” he added.

Woś also received support from the head of PiS’s parliamentary caucus, Mariusz Błaszczak, who called the indictment an “act of revenge…[and] evidence of the government’s utter fear of all those who fought corruption and crime”.

Żurek, however, said that the development shows that there “are no sacred cows, no public officials exempt from responsibility”. He also said that the justice ministry is “restoring the Justice Fund to its original purpose” by supporting “organisations that actually help victims of crime”.

During a hearing last month before a parliamentary commission investigating the use of Pegasus, Woś’s former boss at the justice ministry, Zbigniew Ziobro, confirmed that he had played a key role in the purchase of the spyware. “I’m glad I did it, and I would do it again,” he said.

Since replacing PiS in power in December 2023, the current government has made holding former PiS officials to account for alleged crimes one of its main priorities.

Last month, two former PiS government ministers, Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, were indicted for allegedly violating a ban on holding public office. Another former deputy justice minister, Marcin Romanowski, fled to Hungary, where he obtained political asylum, after being subject to an arrest warrant.

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: MS (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.