Minister Żurek Personally Ordered Withdrawal of Appeal Regarding Piotr Zelt's Acquittal

Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek issued a direct order to the National Prosecutor's Office to withdraw an appeal against the verdict acquitting actor and celebrity Piotr Zelt. The case involved charges of insulting and defaming the former spokeswoman of the Border Guard, Captain Anna Michalska. Information about the minister's personal intervention was revealed by PiS MP Paweł Jabłoński, who submitted an inquiry on this matter to the ministry four months ago. The charges against Zelt stem from his 2021 statements, in which he called Michalska the "face of the bestial, bandit-like standards of the PiS state." The prosecutor's office filed an appeal against the first-instance verdict that acquitted Zelt, but later withdrew it, which ultimately ended the proceedings in favor of the accused. „To Waldemar Żurek, minister-prokurator z nadania Donalda Tuska osobiście wydał polecenie.” (It was Waldemar Żurek, the minister-prosecutor appointed by Donald Tusk, who personally issued the order.) — Paweł Jabłoński This decision is interpreted by opposition politicians as evidence of the current government's political influence on the judiciary. Representatives of the ruling coalition have not publicly commented on this case so far. The function of the Prosecutor General in Poland, held by the Minister of Justice, has long been controversial due to the potential conflict of interest between supervising criminal prosecution and political activity. Reforms of the judiciary have been a major point of contention between the previous and current authorities over the past decade. The case of Capt. Michalska and Piotr Zelt has had a strong political undertone from the beginning, as it concerned the assessment of the Border Guard's actions during the so-called migration crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border. The actions of the services at that time were the subject of sharp disputes between the opposition and the then PiS government. The current decisions of the prosecutor's office in this case may be seen as part of a broader criminal policy towards past incidents. Course of Criminal Proceedings in the Zelt Case: First-instance proceedings: Court acquitted Piotr Zelt → -; Prosecutor's appeal: Filed → Withdrawn on minister's order; Final status of the case: Ongoing → Ultimately discontinued in favor of Zelt The revelation of Minister Żurek's role strengthens opposition accusations of instrumental treatment of the prosecutor's office. The issue of prosecutorial independence from politics remains one of the most important topics in Poland's public debate.