Ewa Bugała’s guest on the program “Wszystko Jasne” (“All Clear”) was the First President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska. “We are on the brink of destroying and dismantling the judiciary. However, I also see positive signs, such as the awakening of judges from common courts. The strength lies within them, and I hope they will not allow this to happen,” said Manowska.
Absurd Attempts to Lift Manowska’s Immunity
According to Małgorzata Manowska, Waldemar Żurek is undoubtedly breaking the law. However, she noted that he is part of a broader scheme. The First President of the Supreme Court recalled that the Minister of Justice had appointed a team of prosecutors to persecute and harass judges.
The discussion also touched upon motions to lift Małgorzata Manowska’s judicial immunity.
“In my opinion, the matters presented by the prosecutor are not serious enough to justify a motion to lift my immunity. Let me give an example of my distinguished predecessor, who did exactly the same thing – she held board meetings remotely without any legal basis, as the so-called ‘COVID law’ did not yet exist at that time. The previous President of the Civil Chamber, Judge Zawistowski, convened an assembly and conducted remote voting despite some judges’ requests for a secret ballot. That’s how it was done back then, and no one objected – but now it’s a problem,” said Manowska.
The Destruction of the Judicial Draw System
Manowska also commented on the regulation introduced by the Minister of Justice, Waldemar Żurek, which significantly restricts the system for randomly assigning judges to cases.
“These changes may lead to manipulation of court panels and to tailoring their composition depending on the case at hand. Moreover, and worse, it stigmatizes all judges who are appointed to a panel by the head of a division. In my view, this move is ill-conceived, and most citizens will feel that a judge appointed by the division head is the ‘right’ one to rule in a given case. This has never happened before. Such a situation will also affect judges who are not suspected of bias,” she emphasized.
In her conversation with Ewa Bugała, Manowska argued that the adopted regulation is “another step toward removing, by way of fait accompli, judges appointed by the President of the Republic of Poland after 2018 from exercising judicial functions.”
“We already had an earlier example of such unlawful actions when special zones were created for judges to deal only with minor matters. This is simply scandalous,” Manowska concluded.