Changes in the Commission for the Pegasus inquiry

MP of the Civic Coalition Mateusz Bochenek was appointed to the parliamentary committee of the PEGASUS inquiry – the Sejm decided on Wednesday. The change was necessary because the current deputy chairman of the commission Marcin Bosacki was appointed as deputy head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Sejm adopted a resolution on the selection of supplementary to the composition of the Commission by an absolute majority of votes. 254 deputies took part in the vote. Most absolute It was 128. “For” 229 deputies voted, against – 1 person, and 24 abstained.

Mateusz Bochenek, whose deputies chose as a new member of the PEGASUSA parliamentary committee, comes from Sosnowiec. As a result of the 2018 election, he was elected councilors, until 2019 he was the chairman of the City Council. Then he was elected for the first time as a deputy. He got to the Sejm again in 2023.

The appointment of Mateusz Bochenk as a member of the Pegasus parliamentary committee is associated with the covering of the current Vice -President of the Commission Marcin Bosacki (KO), the deputy minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

MP KO: Purchase of Pegasus was illegal

Wednesday's vote in the Sejm was preceded by a discussion. Zbigniew Konwiński from KO indicated that the purchase of the Pegasus system from the money of the Justice Fund was illegal. – It was the use of funds, money that was to go to the victims of crime, and you used the money to overheat the opposition at the time – he said, turning to PiS.

Sławomir Ćwik from Poland 2050 said that “it was illegal to buy and use the Cyberbroni surveillance system by the Polish services, which unlawfully under surveillance of Poles.”

In turn, the chairwoman of the Pegasus committee Magdalena Sroka stated that 90 percent of PiS deputies do not know “anything about how the Pegasus system was used”. – Today, from this place, taking this opportunity, I would like to cordially invite the Minister Zbigniew Ziobra (…). I think it's worth the Lord and also said your position on this matter. I think there is nothing to be afraid of, hide and raise the issues of the illegality of the commission – said Sroka.

On Friday, another date of interrogation of the former Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General in the PiS government before the investigation commission is set. Ziobro did not appear several times at the committee call.

“We will not participate in this circus”

The representative of the Circle together Marcelina Zawisza also took the floor in the Sejm. – You have appointed a commission that only ridicule this topic and does not help to solve the topic – she assessed. “We won't take part in this circus,” she added.

Przemysław Wipler, sitting in it, also commented critically towards the activities of the Commission (Confederation). He asked, among others, why the CT judgments were not published and whether the program similar to Pegasus “at present opposition, lawyers, judges or other people are overheard.”

Pegasus under the magnifying glass of the investigation commission

The PEGASUS Remand Commission examines the legality, correctness and purposefulness of activities undertaken using this software, including By the government, special services and the police from November 2015 to November 2023, the Commission is also to determine who was responsible for the purchase of Pegasus and similar tools for Polish authorities.

Pegasus is a system that was created by the Israeli company NSO Group to fight terrorism and organized crime. With the help of Pegasus, you can not only eavesdrop on conversations from an infected smartphone, but also access to other data stored in it, e.g. emails, photos or video recordings, as well as cameras and microphones.

As the Canadian Citizen Lab established, the politicians of the opposition at that time were being underveted. One of the first people he was informed was Krzysztof Brejza, then a senator KO involved in the election campaign of his party in 2019.