Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said Friday he hopes the Constitutional Tribunal will start functioning normally. The Tribunal has become a private fiefdom, and the institution’s operation must be restored, he stressed.
At a briefing Friday, Żurek was asked about a post on the Constitutional Tribunal’s official profile stating that Bogdan Święczkowski is still the Tribunal’s president, Bartłomiej Sochański is its vice president, and Anna Kowrin-Piotrowska is not a Tribunal judge.
“We have to be aware of what President Bogdan Święczkowski’s associates looked like. Two of them have already been criminally charged for failing to abide by the law, and have been suspended from their duties and removed from their posts. Święczkowski has admitted more people to the Tribunal, including one person who faces criminal charges,” Żurek said.
“I don’t know what is happening in the Tribunal, but I am aware of the kind of people Mr. Święczkowski surrounds himself with,” Żurek added.
He said that many employees inside the Tribunal did not want to cooperate with its president. “We saw that symbolic photo of him blocking one of the judges’ entry with his own body, because the Tribunal Guard probably did not want to carry out his unlawful orders,” Żurek said.
“We can expect such incidents to occur, but I hope the Tribunal will start functioning normally, and in a few weeks we will be able to tell citizens how important the cases are for which hearings have been scheduled,” he added.
He recalled that journalists used to be able to attend every hearing at the Tribunal and follow what it was doing. “Later that disappeared, and the Tribunal became a private fiefdom. We have to restore the functioning of this institution,” the prosecutor general said.
He also appealed for calm and for respect for the police guarding the Tribunal’s building. (PAP)
