“If we connect these facts, we can see that Zbigniew Ziobro made the right decision in seeking political asylum,” said PiS MP Mariusz Gosek in an interview with Niezalezna.pl. He was referring to the prosecution’s request for a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for the former Minister of Justice, which came on the same day that Judge Dariusz Łubowski was removed from his position after having previously revoked an EAW issued for another PiS politician. “Those in power no longer want to ‘risk’ the appearance of an independent judge who might rule contrary to the government’s expectations,” he assessed.
As revealed yesterday by Niezalezna.pl, Judge Dariusz Łubowski was dismissed from his role as Head of the International Proceedings Section for Criminal Law in International Relations at the 8th Criminal Division of the Regional Court in Warsaw.
This occurred shortly after he spoke before the National Council of the Judiciary about the reprisals he has experienced since revoking the European Arrest Warrant issued against PiS MP Marcin Romanowski.
On the same day, the prosecution announced that it had applied for an EAW for another PiS politician, Zbigniew Ziobro. The former Minister of Justice is currently in Hungary, where he has been granted political asylum.
The entire situation was commented on by PiS MP Mariusz Gosek in an interview with Niezalezna.pl. In his view, this is no coincidence. He stressed that Judge Łubowski’s dismissal is a decision that cannot be ignored, describing it as a continuation of reprisals against a judge who ruled contrary to the expectations of those in power, something that will have consequences in the future.
“Judges with less experience will simply be afraid of the executive branch, and this is a very dangerous situation for democracy,”
he said.
He continued by arguing that the events surrounding Judge Łubowski show that Ziobro cannot expect a “fair and reliable ruling.”
“None of this is accidental. This timing is truly not coincidental,”
he emphasized.
“It is obvious that individuals with less experience in cases of major importance to the Polish state, especially those involving politicians, as someone will soon be ruling in Mr. Ziobro’s case, will have in the back of their minds what happened to Judge Łubowski. In my opinion, these are very far-reaching reprisals,”
he stated.
He further assessed the situation as a “dismantling of a democratic state governed by the rule of law, where the executive branch directly strikes at the judiciary and undermines judicial independence.”
“A judge is not being allowed to decide based on the law, the available case files, and life experience, in accordance with how they see the judgment. So the ruling is supposed to be exactly as Donald Tusk and Waldemar Żurek expect? There is no longer any talk here of the model of a democratic state governed by the rule of law that is enshrined in the Constitution,”
he said.
“Those in power, the ‘December 13 coalition’, no longer want to ‘risk’ the appearance of an independent judge, like Judge Łubowski, who might rule contrary to the government’s expectations, as in the case of Marcin Romanowski. The verdict is supposed to be certain, as the executive branch expects. Therefore, if we connect these facts, in my opinion, Minister Zbigniew Ziobro made the right decision in seeking political asylum, because he could not expect either a fair judgment, a fair detention hearing, or justice in relation to the EAW,”
he concluded.