Constitutional Tribunal heads sidelined for a month as prosecutor files five immunity motions

A one-month break and a contested takeover

On Friday, 30 October, a notice on the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) website said its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański, were ordered to pause their duties for one month. The stated grounds included the non-admission of some judges to adjudicate, irregular assembly of adjudicating panels and difficulties convening the General Assembly on the Tribunal's 2027 budget. Information passed to PAP by Maciej Taborowski, Magdalena Bentkowska and Maciej Berek indicated that Anna Korwin-Piotrowska had taken over leadership of the court. The Tribunal's own account on X then stated that the website had been taken over unlawfully, that Święczkowski remained president and that Korwin-Piotrowska was not one of its judges.

Korwin-Piotrowska set out the next steps in an interview with TVP Info. She described the procedure as follows.

“The procedure is that within three working days of the order, the court president, in this case I as acting president, must notify the disciplinary court.”

Once the disciplinary court sits, it would weigh the alleged breaches cited in the order and could suspend either judge. If it finds no basis for such a step, it would revoke the break order.

Five motions, 224 pages and a disputed recipient

Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek, who is also justice minister according to Rzeczpospolita, announced on X that he had sent five motions to lift immunity to the Tribunal. Four concern Święczkowski, whom he called acting TK president, and one concerns Sochański. The filings run to 224 pages and came with 50 volumes of case files on the offences they cite. Żurek's post described the recipient only as the judge with the longest tenure, while NIEZALEZNA.PL named her as Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, elected to the Tribunal by the Sejm in March. Żurek gave no details of the alleged acts in the post.

Korwin-Piotrowska said she had not yet read the documents.

“I don't know what is in these motions, because I have not yet familiarised myself with them.”

She announced that she would convene a General Assembly of TK judges to consider the motions. If consent to criminal prosecution of a judge were given, the assembly could also decide to suspend that judge's duties.

Bogdan Święczkowski4

Bartłomiej Sochański1

Bogdan Święczkowski

4 motions

Bartłomiej Sochański

1 motions

Data from the article text

Timing, police and the protest at the seat

Asked at a press conference held around 19:00 why he chose a Friday evening before a holiday weekend, Żurek defended the timing.

“There is never a good moment, because we are always either before some holiday.”

He said he filed the motions when he knew that one judge at the Tribunal was not subject to any of them. The Komenda Stołeczna Policji said its intervention at the TK seat was connected with a report filed by Korwin-Piotrowska.

NIEZALEZNA.PL reported that officers were carrying out statutory actions on the premises but were not inside the building, and that a protest was under way in front of the seat.

What remains open

The articles give no date for a disciplinary court sitting or for the General Assembly. Żurek said further information on the motions would come from the Tribunal itself, while the Tribunal's website and its X account gave conflicting accounts of who runs the court. The 2027 budget, which the break order cited as a stalled item, has yet to be placed before a convened General Assembly.