European parliament. Patryk Jaki, Beata Kempa, Beata Mazurek, Tomasz Poręba – immunities. The Legal Affairs Committee has spoken

In February 2023, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, informed the plenary session in Strasbourg about directing regarding the request to waive the immunity of four PiS MEPs to the EP Legal Committee.

This concerns a request by a court in Poland to revoke the immunity of Law and Justice MEPs: Tomasz Poręba, Beata Mazurek, Patryk Jaki and Beata Kemp. This is the result of an indictment filed by activist Rafał Gaweł – founder of the Center for Monitoring Racist and Xenophobic Behavior – for a PiS spot warning against the migration policy of the Civic Platform.

Gaweł accused PiS politicians of violating Article 256 of the Penal Code, which includes inciting hatred. He accused both the creators and politicians who shared the election spot.

As he wrote on social media Patryk Jakithe case concerns MEPs liking the material shared by the PiS profile before elections local government in 2018.

On Tuesday, the European Parliament’s legal committee voted to lift the immunities of four United Right MEPs.

Jaki wrote that MEPs were accused of “hate speech”. “They want to put us in prison for 3 years under Article 256 of the Penal Code and, through conviction, ban us from standing in elections. We are too much of an obstacle for them in the EU,” said the MEP.

Jaki emphasized that “now the committee’s proposal must be supported by the entire EP at the next plenary session, which of course is supported by a huge majority.”

In her entry commenting on the decision of the EP committee, Beata Mazurek wrote that “the committee’s rapporteur, G. Lebreton from ID, recommended the refusal to waive the immunities.”