Polish constitutional court rejects justice minister’s request to lift chief justice’s immunity

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) has rejected a request by the justice minister, Waldermar Żurek, to lift the immunity of the court’s chief justice, Bogdan Święczkowski, to face charges of abusing his powers.

The accusations relate to the time when Święczkowski served as a senior prosecutor under the former Law and Justice (PiS) government, and specifically to his role in allegedly accessing and making copies of surveillance of an opposition-linked lawyer.

Żurek, who as well as being justice minister also serves as prosecutor general, last month asked the TK to lift Święczkowski’s immunuty so that he could face criminal charges.

But on Wednesday this week, a general assembly of the TK – which is filled entirely with judges appointed under PiS, including many who have had close links to PiS – rejected the request.

In a brief statement, the TK announced that “the general assembly of judges of the Constitutional Tribunal, chaired by deputy chief justice Bartłomiej Sochański, did not agree to hold Bogdan Święczkowski, a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal, criminally liable”.

Święczkowski himself did not participate in the discussion or vote on the resolution. However, he has publicly condemned the request to lift his immunity, calling it “a scandalous political stunt” stemming from Żurek’s “embarrassing ignorance of the law”.

The basis for the request was evidence collected by a special team of prosecutors set up last year by Żurek’s predecessor, Adam Bodnar, to investigate the use of Pegasus spyware under the former PiS government.

That investigation led to “a sufficiently justified suspicion that Bogdan Święczkowski committed a prohibited act” in the years 2020 and 2021 when serving as national prosecutor by “directing the execution of a crime” with “premeditated intention”, said Żurek’s spokeswoman.

Święczkowski’s alleged actions comprised asking another prosecutor, Paweł Wilkoszewski, to review surveillance activities conducted against Roman Giertych, who was at the time a prominent lawyer and close associate of then opposition leader Donald Tusk.

Tusk is now the prime minister and Giertych is an MP representing Tusk’s centrist Civic Platform (PO). Giertych is among a number of PO-linked figures who were surveilled using Pegasus when PiS was in power.

This year, PiS-linked media outlets published recordings of a private phone conversation between Tusk and Giertych that is believed to have been recorded using Pegasus.

Święczkowski, however, denied the allegations against him and declared that all his actions were lawful and fell within the scope of his duties.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY-SA 3.0)

Agnieszka Wądołowska

Agnieszka Wądołowska is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. She is a member of the European Press Prize’s preparatory committee. She was 2022 Fellow at the Entrepreneurial Journalism Creators Program at City University of New York. In 2024, she graduated from the Advanced Leadership Programme for Top Talents at the Center for Leadership. She has previously contributed to Gazeta Wyborcza, Wysokie Obcasy and Duży Format.