An atheist who was expelled from a private Catholic college founded by influential priest Tadeusz Rydzyk after failing to produce a letter from his parish priest has won a long-running discrimination case.
The prosecutor general, Zbigniew Ziobro – who, like some others in the government, is seen as being close to Rydzyk – had lodged an appeal after the expelled student was awarded compensation. But his action has now been dismissed in a final ruling by the Supreme Court.
“Winning against Rydzyk and Ziobro in the Supreme Court, in a chamber filled by the neo-KRS, is amazing,” Marek Jopp wrote in response to the verdict, referring to the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body that appoints judges and which has been brought under greater political influence by the government.
In 2017, Jopp, who at the time was the head of the local branch of the Democratic Left Alliance (SLD), signed up for a postgraduate course entitled “Environmental protection policy – ecology and management” at the College of Social and Media Culture in Toruń, reports Onet.
The college was established by Father Rydzyk, an influential and controversial priest who is also the founder of a Catholic television and newspaper empire and enjoys close ties with the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party as well as its coalition partner, United Poland (Solidarna Polska), which is led by Ziobro.
Jopp denies that his application was a “provocation”, saying that he was motivated to join the course – his sixth postgraduate programme – by an interest in the subject matter as well as the attractive price of just 850 zloty (€183) per semester as a result of a subsidy from the national environmental protection fund, a state body.
The @nytimes looks at the influence of Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, the priest who used his dedicated following and media empire to support the ruling PiS party, with his organisations and businesses receiving generous state subsidies in turn https://t.co/GwwtNFkTU6
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 21, 2019
Jopp received a letter of acceptance onto the course despite not being able to satisfy one of the requirements for admission, a supporting letter from a parish priest. As a non-believer, he was not able to provide one, he said at the time.
However, upon arriving for the first lecture – to be given by the then environment minister, Jan Szyszko – Jopp was informed that he would not be allowed to take part because he had not provided the required letter. His fees were returned and his appeals to the college were unsuccessful, reports Onet.
Jopp went to court with the case, arguing that as the course had received a state subsidy of 140,000 zloty (€30,000) it should not be able to make such demands of prospective students.
Having lost his case in an administrative court, in 2019 he won a civil case against the college, which was ordered to pay him 5,000 zloty (€1,075) compensation. Jopp also brought a case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 2017, but that is yet to be heard.
A court has ruled that Father Rydzyk's college unlawfully discriminates by only accepting students who provide a certificate from their parish priest.
It must pay 5,000 zl compensation to an atheist who brought the case after being rejected by the college https://t.co/Ts0jqCRWA2
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) August 7, 2019
In 2020, after Jopp had received the compensation following intervention from a bailiff, the public prosecutor’s office took up the issue, requesting the case files as part of a “routine analysis of the regularity of proceedings”, reports Onet.
The public prosecutor, Ziobro, who is also the justice minister, then submitted an extraordinary appeal via his deputy, Robert Hernand, on the basis that postgraduate study courses are not vocational in nature and therefore the discrimination law on which basis the compensation was awarded was not applicable.
An extraordinary appeal, which was introduced into the Polish legal system as part of the PiS government’s controversial judicial overhaul, is supposed to prevent judicial errors and injustices. It can be launched by the prosecutor general, the human rights commissioner, or in some cases other bodies, to challenge a final court ruling.
“The problem in the case was not discrimination of any kind, but internal administrative lapses that caused a college employee to wrongly inform Marek Jopp that he had been accepted for the postgraduate course,” Hernand argued.
Jopp, however, maintained that as a graduate in agricultural engineering, “in-depth knowledge in environmental protection could help me very much in my professional development”.
Last week, the Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs Chamber of the Supreme Court found that Ziobro’s complaint was baseless as the court rulings had not infringed the constitution or other laws.
“I was worried about the ruling, because it was not normal, but everything has turned out well and I am happy that the judges have made a just decision,” said Jopp, quoted by Rzeczpospolita.
He added that he hoped this would be the end of the case, although the possibility exists that “someone” will still try to challenge the ruling through a decision issued by the Constitutional Tribunal.
His victory was also celebrated by The Left (Lewica), the alliance that SLD is part of. They wrote that Jopp had successfully “fought against religious discrimination” to ensure that everyone can “lawfully study at their chosen university”.
Main image credit: Michal Lepecki / Agencja Gazeta
Ben Koschalka is a translator and senior editor at Notes from Poland. Originally from Britain, he has lived in Kraków since 2005.
