Krzysztof Parchimowicz, co-founder of the Lex Super Omnia association of independent prosecutors and its president for several years, must again face a disciplinary court for prosecutors. This time he is accused of his entries on Twitter.

He was supposed to submit his explanations in this case on Friday, 4 September 2020, but the hearing was adjourned because one of Parchimowicz’s defence attorneys asked for this for personal reasons and the disciplinary court agreed.

But this is not the end of it.

This coming Thursday, 10 September, the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court will decide whether Parchimowicz will have another disciplinary case. This time because he was in the role of the public at Prosecutor Beata Mik’s hearings, while she was being prosecuted for writing critical articles in “Rzeczpospolita”.

Prosecutor Mik was ultimately acquitted by the Disciplinary Chamber. She died in March 2020. But now Parchimowicz may face disciplinary action for supporting her.

His guilt is that he attended her disciplinary hearings. This is how prosecutors show their solidarity with their repressed colleagues. They do this so that their prosecuted colleagues feel they are not alone and that the disciplinary court can see that these cases are important and that they are of interest to the citizens. And this is the role played by Parchimowicz at Beata Mik’s hearings.

However his superiors did not like this. They wanted him to face a disciplinary charge for being there during work time and not informing his management of this. Even though the prosecutor is held accountable for the results of his work and not for the number of hours spent behind his desk. This time, the disciplinary commissioner decided that the case was not suitable for charging him.

However, the Prosecutor General appealed against this to the Disciplinary Chamber. And now the Chamber will decide whether to prosecute Parchimowicz.

Disciplinary action for Parchimowicz for criticizing the Prosecutor General

In the case in which the former head of Lex Super Omnia was supposed to provide explanations on Friday, 4 September, Marek Suchocki, Deputy Disciplinary Commissioner of the Prosecutor General for the Białystok region, had accused him of allegedly breaching the dignity of the prosecutor’s office.

According to the disciplinary commissioner, Parchimowicz breached Article 96 § 2 of the Act on the Public Prosecution Service, because he conducted activities after work which could have undermined confidence in his impartiality.

The commissioner did not like Parchimowicz’s entries on Twitter, which he posted as the president of the association of prosecutors. And he charged him on disciplinary grounds for that. The commissioner concluded that entries from 2017 struck at the gravity of the prosecutor’s office, in which Parchimowicz:

• ironically, offered a job in the Disciplinary Chamber for PLN 33,000 per month, but with the requirement of being on call and gave an e-mail address from the Ministry of Justice;
• criticized Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro;
• wrote about National Prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski’s wife, who is a judge.

Other than the entries in Twitter, Parchimowicz was also charged for his statement in the TVN24 programme Czarno na Białym [Eng. – Black on White]. He criticized Zbigniew Ziobro there in 2017 and said that prosecutors from Szczecin should discontinue the investigation of judges who did not agree to the arrest in the investigation regarding the plant in Police. Parchimowicz said that to handle this investigation is ‘to remain in error’.

This matter has been dragging on for several months. Earlier, Parchimowicz’s defence attorneys wanted it to be discontinued, because a disciplinary charge was pressed by Marek Suchocki, who had not been appointed to the office of deputy disciplinary commissioner, but was purely the acting commissioner. And there is no such function in the Act on the Public Prosecution Service. However, the disciplinary court did not agree to the discontinuation.

Parchimowicz, the number one suspect among the insubordinate prosecutors

Krzysztof Parchimowicz is paying a high price for his activities as president of Lex Super Omnia. He has already had several disciplinary cases opened by Ziobro’s disciplinary commissioners. The current case, which has been deferred, is the third. And the one that will be in the Disciplinary Chamber on Thursday is the fourth.

Parchimowicz previously won two cases in the disciplinary court:

• He was accused of alleged sluggishness at work, but the disciplinary court did not agree with this.
• He heard charges for a critical communication of the Lex Super Omnia management board about the Regional Prosecutor from Katowice, Tomasz Janeczek, but was acquitted.

Both of these cases also went to the Disciplinary Chamber at the Supreme Court.

The disciplinary commissioner is still checking Parchimowicz’s statements to Newsweek and Trybuna. In them, he said that some prosecutors were profiting from fulfilling the instructions of the management of the prosecution service, while others – the insubordinate ones – were being harassed. This matter is at the stage of disciplinary proceedings before the disciplinary commissioner for prosecutors.

The prosecution service is additionally pressuring Krzysztof Parchimowicz. It is conducting an investigation into his article from 2009 (he was working at the National Prosecutor’s Office at the time) which, according to the current prosecution service, was allegedly favourable for tax fraudsters. Meanwhile, Parchimowicz only provided information in it about Supreme Court rulings. In this case, he is absurdly being made to look as if he was connected with the VAT mafia. Parchimowicz has not yet faced any charges to date.

Resignation from the post, but not from defending the rule of law

Parchimowicz was being attacked and repressed for his activities in support of the independent prosecution service as the head of Lex Super Omnia. He paid for this with a deterioration of his health. He resigned from this post in April 2020 for this reason. But he is still a member of Lex Super Omnia and continues to defend the independent prosecution service and supports repressed prosecutors.