A politician of the ruling coalition, Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, entered the Supreme Court today without the consent of President Małgorzata Manowska and held a press conference on the court’s premises. He had been invited by the lay judges, who also adopted a resolution addressed to President Karol Nawrocki. In the resolution, they used the term “neo-judge.”
On Friday, Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek unexpectedly appeared in the Supreme Court, where he even took part in a press conference. Judge Prof. Aleksander Stępkowski, defending the court’s independence, firmly interrupted the conference. He accused the minister of unlawfully entering the court premises without the consent of its head. In response, Żurek used an insulting term, saying “Mr. neo-judge.” Żurek was in the Supreme Court at the invitation of the lay judges.
The Council of Lay Judges appeals to the president
After the meeting, it turned out that the lay judges had decided to issue a statement that did not shy away from politics. They addressed President Karol Nawrocki.
“In connection with the declared retirement of the President of the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, Wiesław Kozielewicz, we appeal to President Karol Nawrocki not to appoint a so-called neo-judge to this position,” reads Friday’s resolution of the Council of Lay Judges of the Supreme Court.
The resolution stated that the “publicly declared, imminent” retirement of President Kozielewicz requires the selection of his successor, who – in accordance with the law – is appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland after consulting the First President of the Supreme Court regarding candidates selected by the assembly of judges assigned to adjudicate in the Disciplinary Chamber. The Council of Lay Judges emphasized in the resolution that appointing to this position a person nominated to the Supreme Court through an “unconstitutional procedure involving the pseudo-National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) in its current statutory form, inconsistent with the Constitution of the Republic of Poland (…) would deepen the constitutional problem of the Chamber and hinder the restoration of democratic rule-of-law standards.” They added that such a decision would make it impossible for the Supreme Court’s lay judges to fulfill their public mission in this Chamber.
“The Council of Lay Judges of the Supreme Court appeals to the President of the Republic of Poland, Dr. Karol Nawrocki, not to appoint a so-called neo-judge to the above-mentioned position,” the resolution reads.
The Council also appealed to judges appointed to the Supreme Court after 2017 not to exercise their active or passive electoral rights in the procedure for selecting candidates for the position of President of the Disciplinary Chamber. The resolution stated that these rights “are not rightfully theirs and are usurped.“
Controversies surrounding the lay judges
The lay judges of the Supreme Court have long been the subject of much controversy.
“As many as 26 of the 30 lay judges appointed by the Senate to adjudicate in the Supreme Court were nominated by the Committee for the Defense of Democracy (KOD). The list includes individuals who have run in various elections on the Civic Coalition ticket. However, particular attention was drawn to two new lay judges: one was known for giving statements to Russia’s ‘Sputnik,’ and the other – for insulting officers defending the Polish-Belarusian border,” we reported on Niezalezna.pl in October 2022. And in 2023, we wrote on Niezalezna.pl that the Council of Lay Judges of the Supreme Court was urging lay judges not to sit on panels with certain Supreme Court judges.