Kaczyński questioned as witness in Constitutional Tribunal judges probe

Questioning in Warsaw

Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS), was questioned as a witness at the National Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw on Friday, 30 October. Prosecutors' spokesman Przemysław Nowak confirmed the questioning to the Polish Press Agency (PAP). The probe concerns the decision to keep four of the six judges the Sejm elected to the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) in March from ruling. Those four are Krystian Markiewicz, Marcin Dziurda, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska and Maciej Taborowski. The investigation was opened at the end of April.

What Kaczyński said

Kaczyński spoke to reporters after leaving the building and described the session as properly conducted.

“The questioning was conducted in a proper manner and in a very courteous way.”

Asked whether investigators focused on judges who had not sworn the oath before the president, he said the questions concerned their legal situation.

“It was about the legal situation connected with this, of course in my assessment.”

He added that he had presented his legal views although he was not obliged to. Asked whether the questions covered the events of 14 October or the wider dispute, he answered that they covered the whole context of the case.

The oath dispute

On 13 March the Sejm elected six judges to the Tribunal, but the Presidential Palace invited only Magdalena Bentkowska and Dariusz Szostek to take the oath. The Chancellery said procedural errors had occurred in the Sejm for the other four and that their situation was under analysis. On 9 April the four took the oath in the Sejm's Column Hall using the formula 'before the president', filed a certificate with the Chancellery and then went to the Tribunal. TK president Bogdan Święczkowski refused to let them rule, arguing that events in the Sejm could not be treated as an oath before the president.

Maciej Berek faced a similar situation on 14 October. He took the oath in the Sejm with the same formula, then went to the Tribunal and spoke with Święczkowski. Berek says Święczkowski physically prevented him from entering the corridor leading to the judges' room, and he filed a notice alleging violation of the bodily integrity of an official.

Charges, witnesses and other complaints

At the end of September prosecutors presented charges of abuse of powers and neglect of duties to two people: the director of the Tribunal's chancellery and the commandant of the Tribunal Guard. In May, Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the President's Chancellery, was questioned as a witness, and prosecutors want to question President Karol Nawrocki in this case. Separately, Sławomir Patyra, a TK judge elected by the Sejm in June, filed a notice at the end of September concerning suspicion that adjudicating panels were assigned in breach of the law. Other notices about the Tribunal have also reached prosecutors.

Gosek and the same-day questioning

Mariusz Gosek, a PiS MP, was also summoned as a witness on the same day. He confirmed that the questioning concerned legal questions about the Tribunal's functioning but declined to give details, citing the confidentiality of the preparatory proceedings.

“Some questions, in my assessment, should not have been asked here at all.”

Gosek said some of the issues raised by investigators had surprised him.