“As a result of the suspension of almost all presidents of the Kraków District, the Chairman of the National Council of the Judiciary wrote in an open letter to the judges of the Republic of Poland about the attempt of the Ministry of Justice to publicly ban judges of the Kraków District lynching, several statements made. views”, was written on the profile of the National Council for the Judiciary on the X platform. Below we present the full text of the said letter.
Dear Judges of the Republic of Poland!
After reading the Minister of Justice’s announcement of March 4, 2024, I cannot remain silent despite the half-truths and insinuations contained therein.
March 4, 2024 – Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar in relation to the management of the District Court in Krakow, and Deputy Minister – Judge Dariusz Mazur in relation to District Courts, suspended 10 of the 12 presidents of district courts in the Krakow District and two vice-presidents of District Courts and the entire management of the District Court in Krakow. The official statement of the Ministry of Justice referred to the actions of the previous Minister of Justice, who dismissed the President of the Krakow District Court, two vice-presidents of this court and three presidents of district courts, and also wrote, among other things, : “(…) This led to a situation where presidents and vice-presidents of courts, the Minister of Justice, began to appoint people who did not have sufficient legal and administrative experience. Candidates for presidents and vice-presidents of courts were selected on the basis of a non-substantive key, which was replaced by a key of loyalty to the political factor. Further statements, both in the announcement and in the decisions to suspend the presidents, point to the supposedly ‘stunning’ careers of the presidents of district courts, which were the result of them giving me the required support as a candidate for a member of the National Council. Council for the Judiciary in 2018 or the end of 2021
– we are reading.
Suspended presidents include judges with more than thirty years of experience who have not been promoted (Wojciech Trzaska, Lucyna Podsadecka), judges with shorter experience who have not been promoted or have not applied for promotion (Ewa Motyczyńska-Pałys, Izabela Fluder, Irena Bochniak) , judges who took on the position of president in small courts facing personnel and organizational problems (Izabela Fluder, Jarosław Koczański, Karolina Miklaszewska), graduates of the National School of Judiciary and Public Prosecution (Marcin Cichoński, Karolina Miklaszewska), judges who were promoted to judge at the District Court after more than twenty years of service of judges (Jarosław Koczański, Małgorzata Święch, Piotr Skrzyszowski), after many years of service (Bartłomiej Migda, Maciej Pragłowski, Rafał Sobczuk, Piotr Kowalski), as well as judges who received their first appointment at the request of the National Council for the Judiciary, established after 2017 (Michał Puzo, Łukasz Felisiak). Most of them supported the judges who ran for the National Council of the Judiciary (the exceptions were: Łukasz Felisiak and Karolina Miklaszewska). Some held positions in courts whose presidents had retired and where there were no long-serving judges willing to take up the position (Karolina Miklaszewska, Izabela Fluder). Support for judges running for the National Council of the Judiciary appears to be the dominant, albeit inconsistently applied, criterion for suspensions. In fact, however, the real criterion for selecting persons subject to suspension is an attempt to paralyze the administration of the Kraków District Court, which is expressing its intention to dismiss the President, by people who oppose this trend objection, to be excluded from participation. in the judiciary, who openly opposed judicial reform. The aim of the Minister of Justice is obvious: to obtain a positive opinion from the council on the intention to dismiss the president of the district court in Krakow
– writes the head of the National Council for the Judiciary.
During my position as President of the District Court in Krakow, the judges who served as Presidents of the District Courts in the Krakow District became known to me as responsible people who respected their colleagues and did not give in to any pressure, including pressure on the environment. They deserve a word of thanks for their kindness and dedicated work for the good of the courts they managed and continue to manage. The current management of the Krakow District Court deserves my deep respect for their knowledge, empathy and dedication. All this leads me to believe that the purpose of the actions of the Minister of Justice, currently an active politician, is to appease a group of judges hungry for retaliation and personal revenge. I wanted you, Judges, to look at the Department’s recent actions from the perspective that most suspended Presidents expressed their disapproval of the actions of some Judges and judged them to be unethical. Significantly, this assessment also covered the current Deputy Minister of Justice, Dariusz Mazur, who personally made decisions to suspend management members in relation to district courts.
You can have different views about the functioning of the judiciary. You may want to change the powers of the courts, but I ask you, judges, to consider the attempted public lynching of these judges when the Minister of Justice uses the words: “key of political loyalty”.
This is what I ask you in public.
judge Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka
– we are reading.
tkwl/X
Source: wPolityce