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Supreme Court judges refuse to work with new appointees

Thirty judges of Poland’s Supreme Court have declared that they will not work with new judges appointed to the court through a procedure involving the current National Council of the Judiciary (KRS).

The current formation of the KRS has been accused of politicising the judiciary and has been one of the elements of changes to Poland’s judicial system that has drawn the ire of critics.

“In such a situation, participation in the procedure and the issuing of judgements is unacceptable,” the judges wrote in the statement sent to the Supreme Court’s secretariat and president and signed by 30 so-called ‘old judges.’ 

Citing a 2020 resolution of three chambers of the Supreme Court, which they said was binding on all its members, the judges wrote that the involvement of judges appointed by the KRS would undermine the court.

The signatories added that a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasburg had stated that verdicts issued by judges appointed by the current KRS would violate the right to a fair trial. 

Last year the same court ruled that the KRS was no longer independent of political influence. 

Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro dismissed the judges’ declaration as political.

“I have long not only talked, but have undertaken real action,” Ziobro said. “I proposed a law that would remove from the judiciary those judges who question the Polish constitution and their obligations because a judge is a person who should be free from political or party partialities, should defend the law and be a loyal servant of Polish laws and the Polish constitution,” Ziobro told a press conference on Monday, adding that “if someone acts against their own appointment they should not be a judge, especially on the Supreme Court.”

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