The Prosecutor’s Office has asked the Warsaw Court of Appeal to exclude Judge Dariusz Drajewicz from considering an appeal in a case related to a request for the issuance of a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) against former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro. The reason? According to prosecutors, there are “doubts as to the judge’s impartiality.”
On March 26 this year, the District Court in Warsaw rejected a defense motion to suspend proceedings regarding the issuance of a European Arrest Warrant until a final ruling had been issued in proceedings concerning the application of measures against Zbigniew Ziobro. Ziobro’s defense attorney filed an appeal against that decision within the prescribed time limit; however, the appeal contained a formal defect, as it had not been signed by the defense lawyer. The court ordered the attorney to remedy the deficiency by signing the appeal by May 7. After the defect was corrected, the appeal was formally accepted for consideration.
The body competent to examine the appeal is the Warsaw Court of Appeal, where the case was initially assigned by random draw to Judge Anna Nowakowska. However, on May 19, the National Prosecutor’s Office filed a motion seeking her exclusion. That motion, according to the spokesperson for the Warsaw appellate court, Judge Alicja Fronczyk, was granted by the court on May 28.
As a result of a new draw, Judge Dariusz Drajewicz became the new reporting judge.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office is also dissatisfied with this judge.
As explained by the spokesperson for the National Prosecutor’s Office, prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, the “key argument” for excluding Drajewicz is “the course of the judge’s professional career.”
“Before being appointed to the Warsaw Court of Appeal, Dariusz Drajewicz served in higher-instance courts under delegations granted by decisions of the then Minister of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro. This concerned a delegation to the District Court in Warsaw and subsequently to the Warsaw Court of Appeal. These decisions were taken during the period when Zbigniew Ziobro headed the Ministry of Justice,” the spokesperson specified.
Furthermore, according to prosecutor Nowak, the motion for exclusion points out that Judge Drajewicz was appointed to the Warsaw Court of Appeal “through a procedure involving the National Council of the Judiciary formed after the 2017 reforms.” The motion also recalls that “Dariusz Drajewicz’s candidacy for the National Council of the Judiciary was submitted by members of parliament from the Law and Justice Parliamentary Club, and that Zbigniew Ziobro, then a member of that parliamentary club, personally voted for the list of candidates that included his name.”
“In the prosecutor’s assessment, the above circumstances, considered together, may give rise to justified doubts regarding the impartiality of Judge Dariusz Drajewicz in a case directly concerning Zbigniew Ziobro,” prosecutor Nowak emphasized.
Similar reservations concerning Judge Drajewicz had previously been raised by the Prosecutor’s Office in its motion seeking the exclusion of Judge Anna Nowakowska, who had originally been designated to examine the appeal filed by Ziobro’s defense attorney. It appears that motions to exclude judges may continue to be submitted until an “appropriate” judge is selected through the draw.