New laws put the Polish judiciary is under the control of the government. The Minister of justice may designate a presiding judge and dismissed. Critical judges are under pressure.
On a Sunny afternoon in July: protesters gather in front of the Parliament building in Warsaw. Waldemar Zurek occurs in front of the crowd: “The Constitution is our highest law. Therefore, I will protect you until the end. I have sworn by my Richtereid”. Applause.
Waldemar Zurek is a judge and press spokesman of the national judicial Council, the institution, the independence of the judiciary monitored. Part of the reform of the judiciary and the national-conservative government in Warsaw is to bring the Council under control.
“It is a war for the rule of law, which breaks out here,” said Zurek in an interview with DW. The government wants to change the state with “simple laws”. “She has no powers, as it has in the Parliament on the necessary constitutional majority,” – outraged the judge. Such a law has just come into force. It gives the justice Minister the right to appoint the chairmen of all courts, and also to sell.
“in an absurd maze”
Waldemar Zurek, judge under pressure
However, his courage and his critical attitude Zurek risks for Waldemar. For months, he felt like “in an absurd maze”.
“All of a sudden, I learned to identify in my case,” he says. Officially, the investigation is not directed against the judge, but would have led to his protection. The prosecution did learn from the media that he had told colleagues of threatening Letters he is getting. He filed neither a lawsuit nor filed a complaint with the police. The Prosecutor’s office was still active; however, instead of looking for the letter writer, Zurek interrogated.
He fears that investigators will soon search his Computer with all the information and contacts. “Now you check my phone calls without my consent,” says Zurek. The laws in Poland. For the judges, the threatening letters are just a pretext for the Prosecutor’s office to put him under supervision.
Strange Interrogations
The fears of the judge to be confirmed by new investigations of the anti-corruption authority. These have started “purely by chance” right now with the Review of his tax returns from the last few years.
Tens of thousands of poles were against the reform of the judiciary on the streets
“The investigators ask how much money I had in an account five years ago,” says Zurek from the Interrogations. “I say then: just as much as in my tax Declaration. But you drill further: there Were 5000 Zloty? It was more or less than 5000 Zloty? I can’t remember exactly but”.
5000 Zloty equivalent of around one thousand Euro. The way the authorities deal with it, perceive the judge as harassment. An Interview with DW, the anti-corruption Bureau rejects. In a succinct opinion, the Review of the tax returns of the judge, was a matter of routine. The officials refer to Internet portals, the reports of a supposedly “substantial assets” of the judge. Specific allegations or accusations, there is not.
President Andrzej Duda a put at the end of July against two of the three planned justice legislation with a Veto
The judge as a “caste”
Attacks by Pro-government media is Zurek already accustomed to. He would represent “the interests of the old judge caste”, the old Communists would be to accuse him of PiS-close to publicists. “The Ruling represents us as an Elite, which is associated with the old System and want to prevent the reforms,” he says. The 47-Year-old was in Communist Poland as a teenager in the opposition movement and not a Communist functionary, plays no role.
Zurek sees the next future a little optimistic. He does not believe that Jaroslaw Kaczynski would differ because of the criticism from Brussels, or because of the protests of his compatriots from the hard course and the reconstruction of the Polish state. Much more he would pursue for the blind to further its goal to bring the judiciary totally under control.
Gloomy prospects for the rule of law
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Polish judge thwarted
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Polish judge thwarted
Already now, the Polish constitutional court is dominated by Pro-government judges, and the public image of its independence is damaged. Many people in Poland speak of a “dummy”. The newest law will strengthen the Minister of justice, who is also the attorney General, in a disproportionate way to the judges. Since a few days, he is allowed to appoint the chairmen of courts and their deputies or withdrawal without having to justify it. Two more laws has not stopped the President Mr Andrzej Duda. They were also more in control of the Polish national Council of justice and the Supreme court. The Form In which you finally will enter into force, no one knows. Kaczynski tried in spite of all the protests continue to bring the Supreme court under his control. This determines, among other things, on the validity of elections.
Waldemar Zurek expects to lose his Post as a judge at the Krakow district court. As soon as the investigation “for his own protection wouldn’t be” enough already, he had learned three weeks after his critical appearance at a Demonstration in Warsaw that, for him, a disciplinary action threatened because of his political commitment. But he is not giving up.