The President has refused to promote eight judges to the Courts of Appeal and 38 to the Regional Courts, the portal Niezalezna.pl has learned. Notably, the list contains no judicial assessors. Moreover, it consists mainly of judges who challenged rulings on the grounds that they were issued by so-called “neo-judges.”
According to Niezależna.pl’s information, many of the judges denied promotion by President Karol Nawrocki come from Warsaw, Kraków, and Gdańsk.
The list also includes judges who signed an appeal to the OSCE, requesting that it monitor the presidential elections planned for May 2020 – elections that critics of their organization referred to as “envelope elections.” It further includes judges who signed an appeal calling for full implementation of CJEU rulings, including the immediate cessation of operations of the Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Chamber.
“For the next five years, no judge who questions the President’s constitutional powers, the Polish Constitution, or the Polish legal system can count on a nomination or promotion,” Karol Nawrocki announced. The President refused nominations for 46 judges.
He also referred to, among other things, the tragic case in Puszczykowo, where a man murdered his wife and her two children. “The brutal murderer was not effectively convicted because some judges questioned the status of others. Judges in the Republic of Poland are not there to examine the status of their colleagues, but to issue rulings in accordance with the President’s nomination, the Constitution, and Polish law,” Nawrocki emphasized.