To the delight of rule of law defenders across Europe – and the relief of hundreds of victims of persecution in Poland – the aggressive, Eurosceptic Law and Justice government was overthrown in the October 15 elections. There are only a few days left before he will be replaced by a new cabinet formed by the democratic opposition of the Brussels insider Donald Tusk – write Martin Mycielski, Vice-President of the Open Dialog Foundation, and Prof. Wojciech Sadurski, lawyer, publicist and political commentator on the European portal “Euobserver”.
According to Sadurski and Mycielski, Poland’s actual return to a full rule of law will be a difficult task, while the conflict between Warsaw and Brussels over the rule of law effectively ended after the announcement of the election results. not only because of Jarosław’s depth. During eight years in power, Kaczyński managed to ‘deform’ the legal system.
However, as the authors argue, the problem lies not so much with the judges, but with the prosecutors.
Since 2015, under the ruthless rule of the Minister of Justice and Attorney General Zbigniew Ziobro, the Polish legal system has become a tool – or rather a hammer than a scalpel – of the ruling coalition. For eight years it was used to target any citizen critical of the government, any PiS opponent or entity seen as potential competition for one of PiS’s many business ventures, often aimed at siphoning state money into the pockets of loyalists.
-we are reading. Sadurski and Mycielski claim that human rights activists know of dozens, if not hundreds, of such cases, many of which were “too shady to make headlines.”
An extensive – but not exhaustive – list is published annually by the Open Dialog Foundation
– they add. This 2023 list is expected to include 73 cases, divided into eight groups: civil society; judges and prosecutors; opposition politicians, lawyers and local government leaders; former allies; former heads of security services; entrepreneurs and management personnel; journalists, writers and artists; ordinary wretches.
The last category (ordinary unfortunates – editor) arises from neglect of duties for political reasons – often shocking and sometimes even absurd, authentic stories about Ziobro’s cronies sweeping events that are uncomfortable for the elites under the carpet.
– we read on. That is why ODF, Mycielski and Sadurski, with the support of experts, boast of having written a chapter describing systemic problems that weaken the criminal justice system in Poland.
The list of allegations includes: Lack of independence of the public prosecutor’s office; the selective and random nature of investigations; propaganda attacks on people under investigation; continued undermining of the rights of defense and the principle of the presumption of innocence; abuse of secret services at the request of the public prosecutor’s office; abuse of witness status in cases; dropping charges in cases deemed damaging to the ruling coalition; ideological persecution; lack of competence among prosecutors and judges dealing with crimes; violation of the right to a fair trial; illusory judicial review of the decision to apply pre-trial detention; an increasing lack of confidence in the certainty of judicial decisions
-they make a list. And they add that this is to show the Western reader how many pathologies poor Donald Tusk will have to face to restore European standards in Poland, and that it will be very difficult for him.
Also because, as the authors argue with great regret, just before the parliamentary elections, “when the defeat of PiS became at least likely”, the Minister of Justice/Attorney General managed to introduce legal changes to the provisions on public ministry.
The new law transfers some of the most sensitive and important powers of the Attorney General to the National Public Prosecutor’s Office as exclusive powers. The National Prosecutor, formally subordinate to the Attorney General, has acquired enormous powers that make his office autonomous in the legal system. Combined with the fact that the term of office of the National Prosecutor (from March 2022 Dariusz Barski, Ziobro’s ally) will be fixed at five years, and that the President of the Republic of Poland will have the right to veto his dismissal, this means that if If no legal way is found for Barski’s dismissal before the end of his term of office, he will de facto be able to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office at least until 2025, i.e. until the presidential elections.
-we are reading.
All this means, as the authors argue, that “despite the political defeat of authoritarian Poland, it will be difficult for democrats to restore the rule of law.”
-JJW, euobserver.com
Source: wPolityce