The dispute over the dismissal of the AWS rector continues; a PiS MP left the building after the electricity was cut off

Since last week, there has been a dispute over the decision of the Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek, who - after reconsidering the case - upheld his decision from May to dismiss Dr. Michał Sopiński from the position of rector-commandant of AWS. Since then, demonstrations against this decision have been organized in front of the AWS headquarters, including: Law and Justice politicians. PiS MP Maria Kurowska was in the building and refused to leave. The university premises are secured by the police.

"They forced me to leave the Academy of Justice"

Yesterday, after 10 p.m., MP Kurowska announced that she had left the university building. "Ladies and Gentlemen, they forced me to leave the Justice Academy by cutting off my electricity. I am still on hunger strike," she wrote on the X platform, adding a recording in which she says that the recording is "maybe her last report" because the electricity was cut off at AWS and her phone is about to run out. She also noted that she asked a Prison Service officer to restore electricity to the building, but the request was probably not answered.

After leaving the building, in an interview with TV Republika, she indicated that "they worked very hard on it."

Officials started coming to convince me that what I was doing was not good for me or them, because they had to take care of everything. At first they wanted to pity me, but I said that it was not my fault, but Żurek's fault, who had illegally nominated this man, so they should go talk to him. The next day, three psychologists and officials came and kept trying to convince me to end my protest, she said.

Sopiński dismissed as rector

In a statement published on Wednesday on the website of the Academy of Justice, it was reported that the acting Rector-Commandant of the Academy of Justice, Sławomir Cudak, decided on that day to terminate the contract with four employees of the Academy: Dr. Michał Sopiński, Ph.D. Mariusz Kuryłowicz, Dr. Iwona Lewandowska-Pierzynka and Dr. Kamila Chmiel. As indicated, when deciding to terminate the contract, he acted in accordance with Art. 52 of the Labor Code; this article talks about the so-called disciplinary dismissal.

"Michał Sopiński and his closest circle were disciplined and dismissed from the Academy of Justice. For years they thought that the uniformed school was their private fortress and political base. They were wrong," wrote the Minister of Justice Waldemar Żurek on Wednesday.

The deputy head of the Ministry of Justice, Maria Ejchart, said, also on X, that Sławomir Cudak's decision is "the result of a serious violation of basic employee duties."