The Board of the “Themis” Judges’ Association expresses its strong opposition to the unjustified and unlawful repression of independent prosecutors by delegating them to work to other official positions.

Deputy Prosecutor General Bogdan Święczkowski personally issued a decision on 15 January 2021 to transfer 10 prosecutors to work in other official posts, including those located several hundred kilometres from their place of residence. It is no coincidence that the prosecutors transferred in this procedure included as many as 6 members of the Lex Super Omnia association (Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, JarosławOnyszczuk, Ewa Wrzosek, Katarzyna Szeska, DariuszDrapała, and Mariusz Krasoń), three of whom are members of the Association’s board.

One of the statutory objectives of the independent Lex Super Omnia Association of Prosecutors is to return to the model of an independent prosecutor’s office, which is in conflict with the current situation in which the prosecutor general, Zbigniew Ziobro, is an active politician of the ruling camp and his deputy is Bogdan Święczkowski, who became a member of parliament from the Law and Justice party list in 2011. Furthermore, Lex Super Omnia scrupulously watches the current prosecutor’s office while preparing critical reports on its activities.

It is significant that the delegated prosecutors were obliged to take up work in new posts as far as 200 to 500 kilometresaway from their place of residence, and were given 48 hours to do so. This gives their delegation, which is set at the maximum level permitted by law of 6 months, the characteristics of obvious, politically motivated harassment. The justification of this decision as a pandemic is only a pretext, given that 4 of the prosecutors transferred to the provinces had been working in Warsaw to date, where the workload is the highest in the country.

We would like to reiterate that this is not the first move of this kind by the current prosecution authorities, which is to intimidate the prosecution community. The previous transfer to work outside the place of residence of Prosecutor MariuszKrasoń started a chain reaction of persecutions against a dozen judges of the Kraków courts who ruled on his reinstatement, while the transfer of Prosecutor Dariusz Wituszko to a place of work located 800 kilometres from his place of residence ended with his death from a heart attack.

We call on Prosecutor General – Minister of Justice ZbigniewZiobro to dismiss his close associate Bogdan Święczkowskifrom his functions, because the manner in which he exercises them constitutes an obvious pathological abuse of power.

The pathological trend of humiliating people who think differently is typical of authoritarian regimes, the best example of which is the recent treatment of Alexei Navalanyby the services of the Russian Federation at the airport in Moscow.

We express our solidarity, expressions of respect and support for the persecuted prosecutors.

Colleagues, prosecutors, we are with you.