by Oktawia Kromer, Gazeta Wyborcza

Judge Agnieszka Brygidyr-Dorosz sentenced activist Justyna Wydrzyńska to eight months of community service on 14 March for helping to terminate a pregnancy. That same day, she received a secondment to the Court of Appeal in Warsaw by order of Minister Ziobro.

Judge Brygidyr-Dorosz announced her promotion on Wednesday (15 March) during the trial of Jan S., the ‘designer drug king’, in which she is adjudicating. Antoni Kania-Sieniawski, the defendant’s defence counsel in this trial, who was in the court room, announced this to the media.

‘During the trial, the judge announced that she had received a secondment to the Court of Appeal in Warsaw by order of Minister Ziobro on 14 March,’ he told Polityka. He also requested the removal of the judge out of concern that she was passing sentences in line with the expectations of the authorities.

The judge had been working at the Warsaw-Praga Regional Court to date.

Rapid promotion of the judge who sentenced Justyna Wydrzyńska

Just to reiterate, Judge Brygidyr-Dorosz sentenced Justyna Wydrzyńska, an activist of the Abortion Dream Team, on Tuesday 14 March to eight months of a restriction of freedom by way of 30 hours of unpaid community service, for helping to terminate a pregnancy.

Wydrzyńska has been helping with abortions for 16 years. Her case went to court because the ex-partner of Anna, one of the women she had helped three years ago (she gave Anna her own abortion pills), reported everything to the police. Anna had been indicating from the beginning that she was in a relationship of violence. Justyna Wydrzyńska was risking up to three years’ imprisonment for ‘helping with an abortion’.

People gathered in front of the court building in a solidarity demonstration. They were thanking Wydrzyńska for her activity to date. They brought banners with such messages as ‘Just like Justyna’, ‘You’ll never walk alone’ and ‘I am Justyna’. Left-wing MPs also came to the court, including Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, Wanda Nowicka, Katarzyna Kotula, Magdalena Biejat and Marcelina Zawisza.

As we wrote in Wyborcza, Wydrzyńska is receiving letters of support from all over the world, from the United States, through Europe to Australia and Hong Kong. More than 150,000 people have already signed an appeal to the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General, Zbigniew Ziobro for her acquittal. The activist was supported, among others, by the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) and the UN, while the Belgian and French governments have sent financial support.

The career of the judge who sentenced Justyna Wydrzyńska has gained momentum

As the TVN24 website reminds us, Judge Agnieszka Brygidyr-Dorosz’s career gained momentum under the Law and Justice (PiS) government, when the new National Council of the Judiciary appointed by the votes of the PiS politicians came to power. Despite the objection of the assembly of judges of the court of appeal, the politicised NCJ passed a resolution appointing her to the office of judge.