Kaczmarek was fired from Jarosław Kaczyński's cabinet on 8 August 2007, over claims that he had hampered a police investigation against populist right-wing politician Andrzej Lepper, who was dismissed from the Kaczyński government a month earlier.
Kaczmarek's 30 August arrest on the same grounds came on the day before he was to substantiate his claims in another Parliament hearing and before a Sejm vote on whether to hold early elections, following Lepper's dismissal as minister of agriculture on 9 July and the ensuing government crisis.
Kaczmarek challenged the government when testifying before the standing committee on secret service matters. In particular, reports say, Kaczmarek had accused the justice ministry, led by Zbigniew Ziobro, of eavesdropping on two smaller former coalition partners of the Kaczyński twins' PiS, namely the League of Polish Families (LPR), led by Roman Giertych, and Lepper's Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland (SO).
He went on to claim that the information retrieved was used to destroy party leaders' reputation. In July, LPR and SO announced a merger, with Kaczmarek as their candidate for the post of prime minister in elections likely to be held in Autumn 2007.
Kaczmarek was a prosecutor in Poland's judical system before being appointed as interior minister in Jaroslaw Kaczyński's government in February 2007. After his dismissal, some commentators regarded him as the most powerful rival to Kaczyński - at the same time as Kaczmarek, masked agents also arrested Poland's former national police chief, Konrad Kornatrowski, and Jaromir Netzel, CEO of state-owned insurance company PZU.
Giertych reacted to the arrests: "Arresting former government members is in line with only one rule, and that's the rule of gangsters. We now have a Polish Watergate - an event which is unique in Polish history." Former President Lech Wałesa said: "These people are ready to impose a state of emergency - don't think that the Kaczyńskis will give up on power that easily." Prime Minister Kaczyński called the arrest "a sign of a return to normality".
