Acting rector dismisses four staff members at Poland's Academy of Justice amid ministry dispute

Disciplinary dismissals at the academy

On 16 September 2026, the acting rector-commandant of the Academy of Justice (AWS), Sławomir Cudak, terminated the employment contracts of four staff members under Article 52 § 1 item 1 of the Labour Code. The dismissals targeted former rector-commandant Michał Sopiński alongside three academic colleagues: Mariusz Kuryłowicz, Iwona Lewandowska-Pierzynka, and Kamila Chmiel. Cudak published the dismissal announcement on the academy's official social media page after entering the rector's office earlier in the day. Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek confirmed the disciplinary action and argued that the academy had previously been used as a partisan stronghold.

Michał Sopiński and his closest circle have been disciplinarily dismissed from the Academy of Justice. For years they thought that the uniformed academy was their private fortress and political base. They were wrong.

Stand-off inside the rectorate

The dispute over the institution, which was established in 2018 to train Prison Service officers, other state services, and civilian students, began following an administrative decision by the Ministry of Justice. On 9 September 2026, Minister Żurek reviewed and reaffirmed his earlier decision to dismiss Sopiński from the post of rector-commandant, citing provisions that allow the supervising minister to remove a rector for gross or persistent violations of law. Sopiński rejected the dismissal as legally ineffective, maintaining that he remained the rightful head of the university. When Cudak arrived on campus to assume duties, he was initially denied entry before entering the facility with a police escort. Opposition Law and Justice (PiS) parliamentarians responded by staging protests at the site, where MP Maria Kurowska occupied space outside the rector's office on a parliamentary intervention and hunger strike.

Physical confrontations and prosecutorial inquiry

Tensions increased on 14 September 2026 when PiS MP Dariusz Matecki climbed the perimeter fence of the university to bring supplies to Kurowska before police officers intervened and convinced him to leave. Broadcast equipment belonging to Telewizja Republika was also relocated to another floor after journalists were removed from the immediate area. Matecki later described his attempt to access the interior of the premises.

I wanted to go to MP Kurowska with food. I jumped over this fence, I thought that further on the way would be more open, but unfortunately down there, as you go down, there are two rooms where the doors cannot be opened.

Following the incident, Warsaw police spokesman Jacek Wiśniewski confirmed that Cudak submitted a formal notification alleging a criminal breach of domestic peace against Matecki. District Prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba announced that the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office opened three distinct investigations concerning Kurowska's presence in the building, Matecki's entry, and a false bomb alert reported at the academy. Skiba stated that the prosecutor's office would notify the Marshal of the Sejm to request appropriate disciplinary measures against the two parliamentarians under Sejm regulations.

Disputed legal authority and political appeals

Sopiński disputed Cudak's authority to make personnel decisions, announcing an immediate criminal complaint against the acting rector.

The usurper Sławomir Cudak, without being legally authorised to do so, has just begun the process of repression against employees of the Academy of Justice. I am filing a notification to the prosecutor's office regarding the commission of a crime by S. Cudaka.

PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński characterized the ministerial intervention as an assault on the academy and a preliminary step toward taking control of the Constitutional Tribunal. Former defense minister and PiS parliamentary club head Mariusz Błaszczak filed a separate criminal notice regarding the take-over and demanded emergency sessions of the Sejm justice and human rights committee as well as the interior affairs committee. Meanwhile, Minister Żurek defended the legality of the leadership change and urged opposition politicians and the media to maintain calm.