Appointee of former government barred from prosecutor’s office despite Supreme Court ruling

An appointee of the former Law and Justice (PiS) government was prevented from entering the National Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw today despite a Supreme Court ruling on Friday that found he had been unlawfully removed as head of the office by the present government earlier this year.

“There is only one national prosecutor and I perform this function in accordance with the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said Dariusz Barski today before being barred from entry by a security officer. “I have come here because it is my duty.”

The government, however, insists that the Supreme Court ruling is illegitimate because it was issued by judges appointed by a judicial body rendered illegitimate by PiS’s reforms. They recognise their own appointee, Dariusz Korneluk, as national prosecutor.

🔴 #PILNE | Prokurator #Barski nie został wpuszczony do swojego miejsca pracy

Barski: przyjechałem tu, bo jest to mój obowiązek

Oglądaj #NaŻywo: https://t.co/Ww3oSKLTKe#włączprawdę #TVRepublika pic.twitter.com/kT1hx5fcbg

— Telewizja Republika 🇵🇱 #włączprawdę (@RepublikaTV) September 30, 2024

On Friday, justice minister Adam Bodnar said that the Supreme Court’s “position is not binding”. The National Prosecutor’s Office added that the ruling “does not have legal consequences because it was taken by unauthorised persons”.

But PiS, which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 and is now the main opposition party, has submitted a request to the commander of police demanding that his officers ensure Barski can access the National Prosecutor’s Office.

“The usurpers who occupy the prosecutor’s office should, in accordance with the Supreme Court decision, immediately leave this building and make it available to the national prosecutor, that is prosecutor Barski, in accordance with the law,” said Jacek Ozdoba, an MP from the PiS caucus.

“We are witnessing the undermining of the law, of the rule of law,” said Ozdoba. “This decision of the Supreme Court is binding…[and] is also devastating for Adam Bodnar. In fact, we now know that a crime was committed, consisting in an attempt to forcibly remove national prosecutor Barski from his office.”

💬 Europoseł @OzdobaJacek: Jesteśmy świadkami podważania prawa, praworządności. Nie ma czegoś takiego jak neosędzia, a ta decyzja Sądu Najwyższego jest wiążąca. Pan sędzia Kapiński jest niekwestionowanym autorytetem m. in. dla sędziego Tulei. Dla wszystkich, którzy odbywają… pic.twitter.com/WC3deLqsXG

— Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (@pisorgpl) September 30, 2024

In January this year, Bodnar appointed a new national prosecutor, arguing that Barski had been illegitimately appointed under PiS in 2022. However, various senior prosecutors, also appointed under PiS, declared Bodnar’s actions to be unlawful and filed a complaint against him.

On Friday last week, the Supreme Court’s criminal chamber effectively sided with Barski, ruling that his appointment in 2022 had been legal and binding.

However, the current government says that the ruling should be ignored because it was made by judges appointed by the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) after it was reformed by PiS.

Those reforms, which gave politicians greater influence over judicial appointments, rendered the KRS illegitimate, according to European and Polish court rulings.

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Main image credit: Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.