Articles 40 and 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure clearly and unequivocally exclude judges and prosecutors from cases that concern them. “And if Judge Żurek, fully aware that such cases are ongoing within the prosecution, agreed to take on the role of Prosecutor General, then either he lacks knowledge of the law, or there arises a doubt as to whether he did not do it deliberately to clear these cases for himself,” said MP Marcin Warchoł, former Deputy Minister of Justice, in an interview with Niezalezna.pl. This is how the politician commented on the findings of our editorial team regarding an investigation into falsification of information in rulings issued by Waldemar Żurek – former judge and newly appointed Minister of Justice.
As revealed today by the Niezalezna.pl portal, the Internal Affairs Department of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding verdicts issued by Waldemar Żurek, now a former judge and the new Minister of Justice. “It concerns the falsification of facts in documents in the form of rulings of the Kraków District Court by an identified judge of that court, particularly with regard to the dates on which the rulings were issued,” said Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, spokesperson for the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, in a statement to our editorial team.
We asked Law and Justice MP Marcin Warchoł, former Deputy Minister of Justice, to comment on these findings.
“It is commonly said that no one can be a judge in their own case. But this is not just folk wisdom-it is also binding law. Articles 40 and 47 of the Code of Criminal Procedure clearly and unequivocally exclude judges and prosecutors from cases that concern them. And if Judge Żurek, fully aware that such cases are ongoing within the prosecution, agreed to take on the role of Prosecutor General, then either he lacks knowledge of the law, or there arises a doubt as to whether he did not do it deliberately to clear these cases for himself. I, for one, do not suspect Żurek of lacking legal knowledge…”
said MP Warchoł.
He also added that more and more people in the legal community are growing tired of lawlessness.
“But there is a glimmer of hope in all of this – on the very day Żurek became Minister of Justice, the prosecution launched an investigation, based on my report, into the illegal use of confidential personnel files of Karol Nawrocki in the election campaign. This shows that prosecutors have had enough of lawlessness, and Donald Tusk’s hopes of tightening the screws on the rule of law and escalating repression through Żurek may well prove futile,”
concluded the former Deputy Minister of Justice.