For twelve hours, searches were carried out at the headquarters of the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS) by prosecutors subordinate to Waldemar Żurek. Photographs circulated online showing ransacked offices, file cabinets emptied of documents, and locks being drilled open. “In our objections, both to the prosecutor’s decision itself and to the manner in which the actions were carried out, we raised nearly forty points. The decision was issued on January 14. The actions were carried out only today, on January 21, precisely when the Sejm was debating the so-called ‘rule of law’ bill. There are no coincidences or chance alignments,” emphasized attorney Bartosz Malewski.
On Wednesday, police officers and prosecutors Zbigniew Rzepa and Tomasz Narłowski entered the offices of the Deputy Disciplinary Spokespersons at the headquarters of the National Council of the Judiciary. For an extended period, the police blocked access to the building for the media as well as for Members of Parliament.
Employees and judges present in the building posted shocking photographs online, depicting the destruction of locks and the emptying of filing cabinets containing case files.
Twelve Hours of Searches
The actions by the police and prosecutors concluded after twelve hours, shortly after midnight on Thursday.
“Together with attorney Bartosz Malewski, we attached extensive objections to the search protocol. Along with the drilling out of locks to the offices of independent judges and to safes where files were kept, before our very eyes the myth of a ‘law-abiding, smiling authority’ is collapsing,”
wrote attorney Magdalena Majkowska on social media.
“In our objections, both to the prosecutor’s decision itself and to the actions carried out, we raised nearly forty points. The decision was issued on January 14. The actions were carried out only today, on January 21, precisely when the Sejm was debating the ‘rule of law’ bill. There are no coincidences or chance alignments,”
added attorney Malewski.
The Chair of the National Council of the Judiciary, Judge Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, thanked on social media all those who stood up in defense of a constitutional state body.
“I would like to sincerely thank all citizens for their support, and especially all people of goodwill who stood in the cold in front of the KRS headquarters until late at night,” she stressed.
According to TV Republika, a police patrol car and officers on foot patrol were still visible near the KRS headquarters this morning.
A Symbolic Photograph
An image showing prosecutors searching through a filing cabinet in the office of the Deputy Disciplinary Spokesperson for Judges of the Ordinary Courts, Judge Przemysław Radzik, has become the iconic symbol of the operation at the KRS.
“This is a symbolic photograph – a symbol of lawlessness, a symbol of the politicization of the prosecution service, a symbol of the collapse of the Republic. You will not defeat truth and the law. You will not destroy our Homeland. As Deputy Disciplinary Spokesperson for Judges of the Common Courts, I am fulfilling and will continue to fulfill my duties,” declared Judge Radzik.
The association Lawyers for Poland published an emotional statement emphasizing that “it was in this office that actions were undertaken concerning judges’ participation in the coup d’état of the December 13 coalition.”
“They entered in order to seize the files, and the proceedings will be discontinued by compliant judges acting as ad hoc disciplinary spokespeople. The same maneuver was used a year and a half ago in the disciplinary proceedings against the then judge Waldemar Żurek. In a month they will begin taking over the Constitutional Tribunal; within a quarter, they will seize the KRS,”
the statement read.