Court ruling ends criminal probe into mask purchases by Polish government during pandemic

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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.

A Polish court has issued a final ruling upholding a decision by prosecutors to close a high-profile investigation into face mask purchases made during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, concluding that no crime had been committed.

The case centred on transactions made by the health ministry in April 2020, including the purchase of 120,000 protective masks from China for approximately 5 million zloty (€1.2 million).

The deal aroused controversy after reports that it was arranged through a ski instructor who was a family friend of Łukasz Szumowski, the then health minister in the Law and Justice (PiS) government, and that the masks did not meet required quality standards.

The ministry was also accused of paying a significantly inflated price of 45 zloty per mask compared to the market cost of under 1 zloty. Prosecutors also examined allegations of money laundering, the resale of the masks to a state-owned company, and the issuance of false compliance certificates.

However, in February this year, the prosecutors concluded there were no grounds for criminal charges. They found no intent to mislead and concluded the masks met basic protective standards, posing no threat to users’ health or safety.

The health ministry – which is now run by a new ruling coalition led by the Civic Platform (PO) party – appealed that decision. However, in a ruling issued late last month but only now reported, Warsaw’s district court issued a final ruling rejecting that challenge.

The court found that prosecutors had gathered sufficient evidence to conclude that no crime had been committed and that the ministry had failed to offer new evidence or legal arguments to challenge the prosecutors’ findings.

Senior figures from PiS, which is now in opposition, welcomed the court’s decision, saying it vindicated their government and its handling of protective equipment purchases in the early days of the pandemic.

“I’m glad that the truth has prevailed,” wrote former PiS government spokesman and current MEP Piotr Müller. “These are the types of ‘scandals’ they want to hold us ‘accountable for’. Will the Civic Platform politicians making the accusations apologise?”

Janusz Cieszyński, deputy health minister at the time of the purchases, said that the ruling “is the first step towards the truth.”

“The whole ‘face mask scandal’ has served one purpose from the beginning – a political attack on Łukasz Szumowski, the ministry and the PiS government. Nobody has so far presented even a shadow of proof of what PO politicians and the media accused us of from the beginning,” he added.

While the ruling means that the criminal investigation ends without charges, the court noted that the state or other affected parties may still seek compensation through civil proceedings. The ruling also leaves the door open to reopening the case if new evidence emerges.

A separate team of prosecutors and the Internal Security Agency (ABW) also continue to investigate whether public officials abused their powers in awarding contracts to suppliers that failed to meet regulatory standards.

Last year, Poland’s Supreme Audit Office (NIK) notified prosecutors of suspected crimes by former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and other PiS officials, accusing them of abusing their powers during the pandemic and causing financial losses of at least 4 billion zloty, including through wasteful spending on protective equipment.

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: Adam Guz/KPRM (under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Alicja Ptak

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