Polish lawmakers will be paid half their salary if they are “jailed temporarily” but won’t receive their daily parliamentary allowance, the Upper House Senate voted on Thursday.
Senators voted 63 in favour and six against an amendment that made a distinction between temporary detention — such as while a lawmaker is being investigated — and fully-fledged imprisonment, according to PAP news agency. Twelve senators abstained.
“The principle of the presumption of innocence exists in every country,” Senate leader Longin Pastusiak was quoted by PAP news agency as saying.
Under the amendment, parliamentarians who are sentenced to prison will lose the right to their salaries and parliamentary daily allowances, while those in “temporary detention” will lose their parliamentary daily allowances but still be paid half their salaries.
Polish lawmakers currently make 9 527 zlotys (about R19 000) and receive per diem allowances of 2 381 zlotys a month. Senators earn slightly less per month: 9 249 zlotys in wages and 2 312 zlotys of allowances.
The good news for temporarily detained lawmakers is that they will be reimbursed their lost wages and allowances if an investigation into them is dropped or they are found not guilty of whatever charges on which they were detained. — AFP