Piotr Pogonowski arrested. He is to be brought before the investigative commission

Piotr Pogonowski did not appear at the meetings of the Pegasus committee three times, citing the September ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal headed by Julia Przyłębska, which found the work of the committee unconstitutional. After seeking the opinion of legal experts, the committee concluded that the situation qualifies for the use of coercive measures in the form of forcibly bringing in a witness. At the end of November, the Warsaw court agreed to the motion submitted by this body.

The Police Headquarters announced on Monday morning that Pogonowski had been detained. “We are carrying out technical activities ordered by the District Court in Warsaw,” said the spokesman for the Chief Commander of the Police, Insp. Katarzyna Nowak.

“He was detained on the basis of an order issued by the District Court in Warsaw, 12th Criminal Division, of November 21, 2024, on detention and forced transportation to a meeting of the Sejm investigative committee,” the spokesman wrote on Ministry of Interior and Administration Jacek Dobrzyński.

MP Dariusz Joński also informed about Pogonowski's detention on social media. “The former head of the Internal Security Agency, Piotr Pogonowski, did not appear before the investigative commission three times. Today he was detained and will be brought to questioning before the investigative commission for Pegasus,” the KO politician wrote on the X platform.

The RFM editorial office was the first to report the matter.

Piotr Pogonowski served as the head of ABW from 2016 to 2020. Currently, he is a member of the management board of the National Bank of Poland, where he is responsible for the administration, security and controlling departments. In the past, he was also the director of the office of the head of the Central Anticorruption Bureau Mariusz Kamiński and unsuccessfully ran for the Sejm from the list PIS in 2011.

So far, the commission has heard, among others: former deputy prime minister and president of PiS Jarosław Kaczyńskiformer deputy minister of justice, politician of Sovereign Poland Michał Woś, former director of the Department of Family and Juvenile Affairs at the Ministry of Justice Mikołaj Pawlak and other employees of the Ministry of Justice.

The Pegasus Commission of Inquiry is examining the legality, correctness and purposefulness of activities undertaken using this software, including: by the government, secret services and 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 the Polish authorities.