Andrzej Stępka (Chairman), Małgorzata Gierszon and Piotr Mirek (Rapporteur) – these are the judges who revoked the closure of the case of Mariusz Kamiński and other former heads of the CBA. The case was referred back to the District Court for re-examination. Who is behind this act and the obvious legal setback? Perhaps the answer to this question is the facts regarding the composition of Supreme Court judges. According to the wPolityce.pl portal, of the three Supreme Court judges considering this case, two of them had previously acquitted Beata Sawicka, repealed the sentences for the judge accused of ties to criminals and dismissed Grzegorz Przemyk’s case considered. murder definitively ruled out.
READ ALSO: The Supreme Court is blind to the ruling of the Constitutional Tribunal! The case of Mariusz Kamiński and other former heads of the CBA was dropped
The chairman of the panel that will hear the case of Mariusz Kamiński’s presidential pardon is SNN Andrzej Stępka. In 2014, Stępka sat on the bench that upheld the acquittal of Beata Sawicka, a former Civic Platform MP, and Mirosław Wądołowski, the mayor of Hel, in a high-profile corruption case.
A democratic state cannot test the honesty of its citizens and their vulnerability to crime. (…) The agent cannot create a situation of strong emotional and personal ties with the provoked person. He cannot record conversations with her in places other than public places, such as in the car, as was the case here
Judge Andrzej Stępka justified the verdict.
However, this is not the end of the controversial decisions of the jury benches, including judge Andrzej Stępka. In 2016, the Supreme Court, with Andrzej Stępka on the jury panel, overturned the – so small – sentence of a military judge charged with committing 20 acts incompatible with the seriousness of his duties. According to the portal biurorki.lex.pl, retired judge L. was before the disciplinary tribunal and charged with committing 20 acts incompatible with the seriousness of his office. The Disciplinary Spokesman of the Military Judiciary, Major Andrzej Wilczewski, accused Lieutenant Colonel L. of sending notices to the Prosecutor General, the Chief of the Military Prosecutor, the Minister of Justice from July 14, 2011 to August 16, 2013 and the Internal Security Agency about the commission of a crime by more than one person. Among them were the chairman of the military court, as well as an employee of the secretariat and a military prosecutor. These involved the most serious crimes, such as participation in an armed criminal group.
Surely not cooperating?
In turn, the Supreme Court ruled in 2014, with Andrzej Stępka on the jury panel, that being an SB informant “does not qualify as cooperation with the security services of the People’s Republic of Poland” when the reported person knew about the relationships of the informant with the SB. It concerned a candidate for the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Janusz G., who made a statement that he was not a conscious and secret employee of the security service of the People’s Republic of Poland.
The Court of Appeal rejected the appeal. But in October 2014, the Supreme Court overturned the judgment of the court of second instance. “Contacts with the security service that consist of passing on information about people who knew about such relationships do not qualify as cooperation with the security services of the People’s Republic of Poland,” Judge Andrzej Stępka said in the grounds of the verdict.
– we read on the lex.pl portal.
Another case in which Judge Andrzej Stępka is in court is a story in which the Supreme Court only reprimanded Jacek K., a judge of Sieradz District Court, for an official misconduct, relying on lengthy writing of justifications for verdicts . The delays were glaring, ranging from 7 months to as long as 476 days. As a result of the delay, the Treasury Department had to pay compensation to individuals who were awaiting the justification of the criminal verdicts and had been unable to appeal against them for more than a year.
Przemyk’s case
Another judge who today decided on the pardon of Mariusz Kamiński was SSN Małgorzata Gierszon. In July 2010, the Supreme Court, whose jury included Judge Gierszon, decided that the case of Grzegorz Przemyk’s death was finally time-barred. The court rejected the cassation appeal against the final judgment, which ended the case of former riot police officer Ireneusz K., accused of fatally beating a high school student, due to the statute of limitations. The Supreme Court ruled that the appeal in cassation by the then Minister of Justice, Krzysztof Kwiatkowski, was unfounded. Kwiatkowski believed that the act committed by Ireneusz K. was not time-barred, so he wanted the stoppage to be withdrawn and the case referred back to the court of second instance. The Supreme Court rejected his arguments.
The authority of the judiciary, the authority of the law, is based on fair respect and application
– said Judge Małgorzata Gierzon in justification of the verdict.
Today, the same judges, who grossly and deliberately disregarded the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling, ruled on Ministers Maciej Wąsik and Mariusz Kamiński. This is a vivid example of the activities of the “caste” of judges.
WOJCIECH BIEDROŃ
Source: wPolityce