Investigation into the manipulation of adjudicating panels in the Constitutional Tribunal

At the beginning of September, the Prosecutor General, Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, received a notification from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights regarding 170 cases of manipulation of adjudicating panels of the Constitutional Tribunal in the years 2015–2020. According to the Foundation, the composition of the judges was changed in such a way as to ensure decisions with specific content in matters of great political and systemic importance.

The investigation is being conducted by a team of prosecutors dealing with the negative effects of judgments issued by judges appointed after 2017 with the participation of the new National Council of the Judiciary. According to the spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General, prosecutor Anna Adamiak, the proceedings concern "multiple abuse of powers by public officials - judges of the Constitutional Tribunal authorized to appoint adjudicating panels."

The abuse of powers allegedly consisted in "unlawful appointment or change, both personal and numerical, of the adjudicating panels" of the Constitutional Tribunal "without the statutory rules for their appointment", specified in the Act on the organization and procedure of proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal.

According to the findings of the HFHR, in the years 2015–2020 there were changes in the composition of judges in 885 cases before the Constitutional Tribunal. In at least 176 cases, decisions to change the composition were not dictated by the judge's death or the end of his term, but by other - unclear - reasons. The Foundation emphasizes that such actions could violate the Act on the organization and procedure of proceedings before the Constitutional Tribunal and the rules of procedure of the Tribunal.

The prosecutor's office also analyzes reports and publications of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Foundation. Stefan Batory, which had been documenting irregularities in the functioning of the Constitutional Tribunal for years. Investigators have already interviewed representatives of the Foundation as witnesses and reviewed extensive documentation regarding changes in adjudicating panels.

The investigation is conducted into a crime under Art. 231 of the Penal Code, which concerns the abuse of powers or failure to fulfill duties by a public official in order to obtain financial or personal benefits. The prosecutor's office emphasizes that further procedural steps are aimed at verifying all circumstances and collecting the necessary evidence.

Let us recall that Julia Przyłębska was elected as a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal at the end of 2015 by the Sejm dominated by PiS, and soon afterwards she took over as the president of the Tribunal. She resigned from this position at the end of November 2024, just before the end of her term.