Shocking scenes unfolded today at the headquarters of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS). Police officers and prosecutors subordinate to Dariusz Korneluk and Waldemar Żurek entered the offices of the Deputy Disciplinary Spokespersons. A photo has appeared online showing prosecutors Zbigniew Rzepa and Tomasz Narłowski personally searching the safe of Judge Przemysław Radzik. The Judges of the Republic of Poland Association is sounding the alarm about the blockade of a constitutional state authority’s building and describes the actions of the services as “absurd.”
Another chapter is unfolding in what is described as an attack on judicial independence and on bodies of the justice system that have not submitted to the will of the current governing coalition.
Police officers and prosecutors appeared at the headquarters of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), carrying out actions that legal circles describe as harassment and political repression.
Prosecutors at the safe
A disturbing photograph from inside the office of the Deputy Disciplinary Spokesperson for Judges of Common Courts, Judge Przemysław Radzik, has circulated online. The image shows two men in suits—prosecutors Zbigniew Rzepa and Tomasz Narłowski—kneeling by an open safe and reviewing the documents inside.
The nationwide Judges of the Republic of Poland Association commented on today’s events. In a statement published on social media, the association reported that a witness to the actions (and likely the author of the photo) was its vice-president, Judge Adam Jaworski.
The organization did not mince words in its assessment of the prosecution’s actions.
“The search is absurd, given that the Supreme Court has repeatedly confirmed the status of Judge Piotr Schab and his Deputies as lawful disciplinary spokespersons,” reads the association’s post on platform X.
Judges also point to scandalous circumstances accompanying the entry of the services. According to witnesses, officers did not limit themselves to searching offices.
“During today’s actions, the building of the National Council of the Judiciary was blocked, which was not necessary to carry out the search and constituted an unlawful interference with the work of a constitutional organ of the State,” Sędziowie RP warned.
The association declared full support for the Chair of the KRS, Judge Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, and for the Disciplinary Spokespersons: Piotr Schab, Michał Lasota, and Przemysław Radzik.
Background of political retaliation
Today’s raid on the KRS headquarters fits into an ongoing conflict over the shape of the justice system since the current coalition took power. The Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General, Waldemar Żurek, has from the outset sought to marginalize judges appointed in recent years, disparagingly referring to them as “neo-judges.”
Judges Piotr Schab, Przemysław Radzik, and Michał Lasota, as Disciplinary Spokespersons, have become some of the current authorities’ main targets due to their uncompromising pursuit of disciplinary offenses by politicized judges, including those associated with the Iustitia association.
Despite repeated attempts to remove them from office and a sustained media campaign, the spokespersons continue their work, citing fixed terms of office and statutory provisions.