As Reported by OKO.press: Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar Intends to Conclude Two Long-standing Cases That Illustrate How Ziobro’s Ministry Has Treated Judges Known for Defending the Rule of Law

The first case being withdrawn concerns Judge Beata Morawiec of the Krakow District Court, formerly the president of the Themis Judges Association. After being removed from her position as president by the Minister of Justice at the end of 2017 (during her term), a defamatory statement was published about her on the Ministry’s website.

Judge Morawiec filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Justice for the protection of her personal rights and won the case. The Warsaw Court of Appeal ordered an apology. However, Ziobro’s ministry filed a cassation complaint with the Supreme Court, and the case has remained unresolved to this day. The case was assigned to neo-judges of the Supreme Court, and Judge Morawiec has been filing motions for their exclusion.

OKO.press inquired with the Ministry of Justice whether it still supports Ziobro’s cassation complaint. The press office responded: “Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar has decided to withdraw the cassation from the Supreme Court, concerning the Warsaw Court of Appeal’s verdict that ordered the Ministry of Justice to apologize to Judge Beata Morawiec. The case is currently in process. We will provide details once the procedure is completed.”

Judge Beata Morawiec learned about this decision from OKO.press. She commented: “I am pleased because this will conclude another stage of my struggles with Minister Ziobro. I want to work normally again; courts of two instances have ruled in my favor.” She added: “The case has been pending in the Supreme Court for two years. I hope the Ministry will now comply with the final judgment, although Minister Bodnar will be apologizing for someone else’s wrongdoing.”

Minister Bodnar has previously apologized on behalf of Ziobro’s ministry. At the end of 2023, upon assuming office, he complied with a final judgment that ordered the Ministry to apologize to Judge Justyna Koska-Janusz of Warsaw, who had also been defamed by Ziobro’s ministry.

In addition to the dispute with Judge Morawiec, Minister Bodnar is also resolving a conflict with Judge Waldemar Żurek of the Krakow District Court, the most persecuted judge under the PiS government. He was subjected to numerous disciplinary actions, and the prosecutor’s office sought incriminating evidence against him, even delving into his private matters.

The Prosecutor General, Zbigniew Ziobro, to further torment him, filed three extraordinary complaints to the illegal Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber at the Supreme Court, aiming to overturn favorable judgments in his disputes with his ex-wife. Judge Żurek won one case, lost another, and the third was awaiting adjudication.

Minister Bodnar withdrew the last complaint, as he had promised not to file any more complaints to the flawed Chamber. The withdrawal of this complaint marks the end of the repressions against Judge Żurek, although the Extraordinary Control Chamber still needs to issue a formal decision to dismiss the proceedings.

However, the matter is not entirely concluded. Due to the fact that in one case, the illegal Extraordinary Control Chamber overturned favorable judgments for Żurek concerning financial settlements with his ex-wife, a new trial is now underway in the Tarnów District Court. The case was initiated by his ex-wife, based on the decision of the illegal Chamber. The judge questions the legality of this trial. Recently, due to the precedent-setting nature of the case, the prosecutor’s office intervened as a guardian of the rule of law. This entire process is based on a non-existent ruling of the Extraordinary Control Chamber, which is not a legitimate court. In this matter, Judge Żurek is assisted by lawyer Dr. Mariusz Fras.

Judge Waldemar Żurek, like Judge Morawiec, expressed satisfaction with the minister’s decision to withdraw the extraordinary complaint: “I am simply relieved because normality is returning. This is also a very important move for me. We all know that the neo-judges in the Supreme Court do not constitute a court, as confirmed by numerous rulings from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Administrative Court. Continuing the trial in Tarnów could generate compensation claims against the State Treasury.”

The judge is also pleased that the prosecutor’s office has joined the Tarnów case as a guardian of the rule of law. Żurek stated: “If we want to restore the rule of law, we need a coherent legal system, so the prosecutor’s office should actively participate in every such case. What the Extraordinary Control Chamber issued in my case is not a ruling of an independent and impartial court. Many citizens are in a similar situation to mine, and it is now necessary to rectify all of this.”

Recently, the judge filed a criminal complaint with the prosecutor’s office against two members of the ruling panel of the Extraordinary Control Chamber, who decided to overturn the favorable judgment. He accuses them of usurping the function of Supreme Court judges. This is the first such complaint in Poland.

How Ziobro’s Ministry Defamed Judge Morawiec

Judge Beata Morawiec is a former president of the Krakow District Court and was, until recently, also the president of the independent judges’ association, Themis.

In 2017, Judge Morawiec was suddenly removed from her position by the Minister of Justice as part of a nationwide purge of court presidents. The Ministry of Justice’s statement claimed that her removal was related to the subpar performance of the Krakow district courts under her supervision and her alleged failure to oversee the director of the district court (who handles the court’s economic and administrative operations).

Judge Morawiec disputed these reasons, arguing that the Minister of Justice is responsible for the director, and the performance data of the courts under her supervision was selectively presented. OKO.press revealed at the time that the Ministry, when dismissing court presidents, referred to a quality ranking of courts, even though such a ranking did not exist.

What hurt Judge Morawiec the most was the Ministry’s statement that juxtaposed her removal with the arrests of directors of the Małopolska courts—including the District Court—in connection with a corruption case in the Krakow Court of Appeal (to date, no one has been convicted in this case).

According to the judge, this juxtaposition led the public to believe that she was also involved in the corruption case, which prompted her to sue the Minister of Justice for the protection of her personal rights (the State Treasury, represented by the Minister of Justice, was formally sued because the head of the Ministry is responsible for its actions and those of its employees). And she won.

In January 2019, the Warsaw District Court ordered the Ministry of Justice to apologize to the judge on its website. The court ruled that the defamatory statement was deliberate and intentionally violated her personal rights. The court accepted Morawiec’s arguments. This verdict was upheld by the Warsaw Court of Appeal in January 2021, after which Ziobro’s ministry filed a cassation complaint with the Supreme Court.

Filing the lawsuit may have provoked further attacks on Judge Morawiec. During the trial, the National Prosecutor’s Office attempted to bring unfounded criminal charges against the judge, based on the testimony of a person who had legal issues themselves. The charges included accepting a bribe in the form of a phone for a favorable ruling and receiving payment for an opinion she allegedly did not write, although she had written it.

Even the illegal Disciplinary Chamber ultimately refused to lift Morawiec’s judicial immunity.

How Ziobro Attacked Judge Żurek with an Extraordinary Complaint

Judge Waldemar Żurek of the Krakow District Court was one of the first in Poland to defend the rule of law after PiS came to power in 2015. He began his defense while still serving as the spokesperson for the old, legal National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), which PiS dissolved mid-term in 2018 (in violation of the Constitution).

This made him the number one enemy of the PiS government. He was subjected to 23 baseless disciplinary actions, had several proceedings initiated against him by the prosecutor’s office, was harassed at work, and his assets were scrutinized by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA). Additionally, Zbigniew Ziobro, as Prosecutor General, filed three extraordinary complaints with the Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs Chamber at the Supreme Court. The extraordinary complaint and the Extraordinary Control Chamber are PiS innovations.

These mechanisms were intended, among other things, to overturn unjust final judgments. However, it turned out that Ziobro also used the extraordinary complaint against individuals deemed enemies of the state. This also happened to Lech Wałęsa. In Wałęsa’s case, the ECHR ruled in 2023 that the Extraordinary Control Chamber is not a court.

All three extraordinary complaints filed against Judge Żurek concerned his financial settlements with his ex-wife. After their divorce, they divided their assets, and two final court judgments were issued regulating their mutual settlements.

However, after PiS came to power and Judge Żurek, as the KRS spokesperson, criticized Minister Ziobro’s “reforms” on television, his ex-wife complained about the judgments, and her letter ended up with a collaborator of Zbigniew Ziobro and “Gazeta Polska.” The letter contained private matters concerning their family, divorce, and daughters. The information from the letter was later used in media attacks against the judge.

As a result, Żurek sued his ex-wife for the protection of his personal rights, and the Wrocław Court of Appeal ordered her to apologize. The Prosecutor General, Zbigniew Ziobro, then intervened on behalf of the ex-wife in these cases.

He appealed two final judgments concerning financial settlements with the ex-wife to the Extraordinary Control Chamber. He also appealed the ruling ordering an apology. In 2023, the judge won the last case in the Extraordinary Control Chamber. However, the Chamber violated the ECHR’s interim measure granted to the judge to protect him from having his case heard by neo-judges of the Supreme Court.

The second complaint concerning financial settlements with his ex-wife was heard in June 2021, when the favorable final judgment for Żurek was overturned, and his financial claims against his ex-wife were dismissed. This decision was issued by neo-judge Maria Szczepaniec and lay judge Kazimierz Tomaszek (Żurek has now filed a complaint against them with the prosecutor’s office).

Neo-judge Jacek Widło, the presiding judge and case rapporteur, disagreed with them substantively. He found the extraordinary complaint inadmissible and unfounded. However, he was outvoted, so he submitted a dissenting opinion.

In his dissent, neo-judge Widło listed the irregularities in the Chamber’s decision. He concluded that Ziobro’s extraordinary complaint did not meet the formal requirements and should have been dismissed. It was also substantively unfounded.

Widło is the only member of the panel specializing in civil procedure. He previously served as a professional judge in Lublin, where he adjudicated commercial cases. After the Żurek case, he began applying the ECHR and CJEU rulings and recuses himself from adjudicating as a flawed judge. Maria Szczepaniec had no prior judicial experience; she came to the Chamber from Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University (UKSW) and specializes in criminal law.

The lay judge, whose vote was decisive, is a butcher by profession. He previously served as a lay judge in criminal cases in the Żywiec District Court. He also ran in local elections on the PiS and Gowin party lists.

The above text by Mariusz Jałoszewski was published on OKO.press on August 15, 2024.

https://oko.press/bodnar-wycofuje-dwie-wazne-skargi-ziobry-z-sn