Prosecutor and police enter Constitutional Tribunal as judge oath dispute escalates
A prosecutor with police entered the Constitutional Tribunal on Friday, 16 October, while the office of an opposition activist on Marszałkowska Street had its windows smashed. Both incidents sit inside a wider dispute over whether judge Maciej Berek can take up his post.
Prosecutor enters the Tribunal
Prosecutor Andrzej Piaseczny went to the seat of the Constitutional Tribunal on Friday, 16 October, accompanied by police officers, according to a communiqué published by the court. Justice minister and prosecutor general Waldemar Żurek confirmed the visit and said the prosecutor was to receive copies of documents needed for the proceedings. Żurek also said monitoring equipment at the Tribunal had been copied, linking that step to incidents he attributed to Bogdan Święczkowski, whom he called acting president of the court.
The prosecutor, with police and an IT expert, paid a visit to the Constitutional Tribunal.
The Tribunal said its president had decided to hand over the requested documents voluntarily. The court's statement called the entry provocative and said it bore the hallmarks of a crime. It added that the President of the Republic had been informed of the situation.
The entry into the Tribunal has a provocative character and bears the hallmarks of a crime.
Office attack on an activist
Around midday on 16 October, windows were smashed at the office of Adam Borowski, an anti-communist opposition activist and one of the organizers of a protest in front of the Tribunal. The wPolsce24 reporter Stanisław Pyrzanowski said officers entered the building on Marszałkowska Street and detained one of the Tribunal's defenders inside, though the circumstances were not yet clear. The same outlet reported that one of Borowski's associates had been roughed up before being taken away.
- Sejm elects Maciej Berek as a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal
- Windows smashed at the office of activist Adam Borowski
- Prosecutor Andrzej Piaseczny and police go to the Constitutional Tribunal
Oath dispute over judge Maciej Berek
The Sejm elected Maciej Berek, a 54-year-old lawyer and minister for government policy implementation, as a Tribunal judge in September, according to Deutsche Welle. Berek took his oath in the Sejm rather than before President Karol Nawrocki, who had not invited him to a ceremony at the Presidential Palace. Nawrocki said he did not know before whom the minister had sworn.
I do not know before whom Minister Berek swore, but certainly not before the President of the Republic of Poland.
The presidential camp made acceptance of the oath conditional on documents proving the required 10 years of legal practice. Berek replied that he had worked as a lawyer for 17 years and had been on the list of legal advisers for more than 20. Presidential adviser Szymon Stachowiak said the matter had become a competence dispute awaiting resolution. Deutsche Welle reported that Donald Tusk's government relied on an opinion of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, which held that a parliament-elected judge could take the oath without the president being physically present.
According to Deutsche Welle, Tribunal president Święczkowski, described as a close associate of Zbigniew Ziobro, refused to assign Berek a position until the president recognized the oath. Berek accused him of violating his physical integrity and filed a criminal complaint.
Judges and lawyers take opposing sides
On Friday, a group of judges issued a statement demanding that they be admitted to adjudicate. Oko.press reported that four judges, Krystian Markiewicz, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, Marcin Dziurda and Maciej Taborowski, also swore before the president, and that three judges who did the same, Magdalena Bentkowska, Dariusz Szostek and Sławomir Patyra, back them. Their statement argues that the Constitution gives the president no role in electing Tribunal judges and that the oath before him is ceremonial.
Eight lawyers elected by the Sejm this term, three of them sitting judges, published a joint statement the same day. They called the president's approach an arbitrary attempt at selection and argued that the oath was sworn only before the president. They also said Święczkowski had blocked the judges from working for more than seven months. Constitutionalist Oskar Kida said the statement's claims do not match, among other things, the Tribunal's own rulings.
Protests outside the building
About a hundred supporters of the conservative opposition blocked access to the Tribunal headquarters on Thursday, according to Deutsche Welle. Their banners read Poland, wake up. WPolityce.pl reported that protests and vigils outside the building have lasted more than a month, and that Berek held Święczkowski responsible for the protesters' presence.
