Lawyers for Poland condemns ‘political and police pressure’ on Constitutional Tribunal

The Lawyers for Poland Association has condemned what it described as political and police pressure on the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, calling on legal organisations and international institutions to defend the court’s independence. “We express our firm opposition to the political and police pressure being exerted on the Polish Constitutional Tribunal,” the association wrote in an appeal published on X. It said it was protesting against “the intimidation of its judges and the interference with its autonomy and independence” and urged members of the legal community in Poland and abroad to support the Tribunal “in the name of defending the principles of a democratic state governed by the rule of law”.

The statement referred to an intervention by prosecutors and police at the Constitutional Tribunal on 14 July, during a meeting of the General Assembly of the Tribunal’s Judges. “The raid on the Constitutional Tribunal by the public prosecutor and the police […] is an unprecedented event on a European scale,” the association stated. According to Lawyers for Poland, the intervention had been preceded by threats from “an influential politician of the ruling party”, including calls for arrests and for individuals to be brought before fast-track courts. The organisation also claimed that Tribunal employees had been intimidated when officers recorded their personal details during the operation.

The association accused the Public Prosecutor’s Office of conducting “a series of investigations targeting the Tribunal”, while allegedly abandoning other lines of inquiry concerning violations of Poland’s constitutional order, including actions challenging the Tribunal’s legal status. It argued that the measures were consistent with the policy of the ruling majority, which, according to the organisation, “does not recognise the Constitutional Tribunal and refuses to respect its rulings”.

Lawyers for Poland also argued that the dispute was directly affecting ordinary citizens by limiting their ability to enforce rights arising from the Tribunal’s judgments.

It claimed that citizens were being deprived of the possibility of asserting rights violated by legislation that the Tribunal had declared unconstitutional. According to the organisation, this particularly affected vulnerable social groups requiring additional state support, including pensioners and carers of people with disabilities.

The association further alleged that the actions taken against the Tribunal appeared to involve personal retaliation. It claimed that the ruling-party politician who had called for arrests at the court had previously been prosecuted by an office headed by the current president of the Constitutional Tribunal and had subsequently gone into hiding abroad. Lawyers for Poland also questioned the impartiality of the prosecutor assigned to the investigation, alleging that he had previously made unsuccessful attempts to charge the Tribunal’s president with abuse of power. “Entrusting him with the investigation contravenes all standards of impartiality,” the statement said.

The association objected to the use of law enforcement agencies to pressure constitutional institutions and called for an end to actions targeting the Tribunal. “We call for strict adherence to the Constitution of the Republic of Poland, respect for the Tribunal’s independence, and an end to actions directed against it,” it wrote. “We demand that its rulings be respected.”

The appeal concluded with a call for solidarity from legal organisations in Poland and abroad, international institutions and other constitutional courts.