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Executive summary On 31 October 2022, a newly created, supposed NGO, the Institute for European Integrity (IEI), published an entry for the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) as part of its “NGO Watchlist.” IEI labelled the Foundation as an organisation with alleged “strong links to individual(s) sanctioned or criminally prosecuted by a European Union, United States […]

Since the Law and Justice (PiS)-led United Right coalition took power in 2015, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of politicisation of the public prosecution service, which has been transformed into a tool serving political and personal interests of the ruling camp and its members. This resulted in a growing number of politically motivated cases of investigations carried out primarily against those regarded as opponents of the government.

The below case is an extended version of a case presented in our upcoming report entitled “Polish Public Prosecutor’s Office: Selected Cases of Malicious Prosecution and Dereliction of Duties since 2015”, published with the cooperation of the Themis Judges’ Association, the Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour Monitoring Centre (OMZRiK) and ObyPomoc – Obywatele RP. The GetBack […]

1. Foreword The independence of the judiciary in Poland has been systematically dismantled over the last six years, during which previously independent bodies, referred to as safety fuses of democracy, have been brought under political control by the ruling camp (such as the Constitutional Tribunal and the National Council of the Judiciary). At the same […]

Following the detention of our Supervisory Board Chair Bartosz Kramek in June 2021, the pro-government and public media further intensified their smear campaign against him and ODF.  In response to a public appeal in support of Kramek, initiated by former Polish president Lech Wałęsa, Stanisław Żaryn, the spokesperson of the Minister-Coordinator for Special Services, personally […]

Since the Law and Justice (PiS)-led United Right coalition (composed of PiS and its two minor partners – Solidarna Polska and Porozumienie) took power in 2015, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of politicization of the public prosecution service that has been transformed into a tool serving political and personal interests of the ruling camp and its members. This resulted in a growing number of politically motivated cases of investigations carried out against those regarded as opponents of the government. The continuous changes to the criminal justice system (Criminal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, Law on the Prosecutor’s Service) expand the powers of the prosecution, amplifying the so-called inequality of arms between the sides of the criminal proceedings and a general repressiveness of the system.

In defence of freedom of assembly and the rights of protestors We, citizens of the Republic of Poland and the European Union, oppose the violence of the Polish police against participants in peaceful pro-democracy protests and the impunity of officers who break the law.  After the political camp centred around the Law and Justice (PiS) […]

The Public Prosecutor’s Office has accused Bartosz Kramek, an activist and the Chairman of the Foundation’s Supervisory Board, of “laundering money originating from the crime of a false statement”. What was not elaborated upon was the content of the false statement, the issue of which invoices were issued and why the company’s transparent and publicly […]

On the 23rd of June 2021, at 11:00, Bartosz Kramek, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Open Dialogue Foundation, was detained by Internal Security Agency officers, at the request of the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin. After his detainment, he was transported from Warsaw to Lublin to be presented with “charges” and questioned. The […]

On our initiative, on 7 May 2020, several hours before the scheduled election of candidates for the new president of the Polish Supreme Court, experts, judges, prosecutors and NGOs appealed to its judges to continue the fight for independence from political pressure.

Non-governmental organisations (including the Open Dialogue Foundation) and academics specialising in issues related to the rule of law and the protection of human rights, sent an open letter to the President of the European Commission, in which they call for immediate steps to stop the rapidly growing legal chaos in Poland, including prompt submission in the European Court of Justice, of an application for interim measures in Case C-791/19 Commission v Poland, pending before the Court of Justice. The full content of the letter is presented below.

With the utmost concern we learned about the decision of the President of the Kraków District Court, Dagmara Pawełczyk-Woicka, dated 14 November 2019, who refused Judge Dariusz Mazur to conduct training for attorneys and undertake any additional activities until the end of 2019.

Poland’s ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party doesn’t shy away from the authoritarian playbook to secure their power. While the battle with the European Commission over the rule of law rages on, PiS is discreetly trying to tweak electoral law in their favour.

On 17 July we received a notification from the District Prosecutor’s Office of Łódź-Bałuty in Łódź about the initiation of an investigation into the infringement of tax secrecy and abuse of power to the detriment of the Open Dialogue Foundation and our related company Silk Road Biuro on 5 July 2019.

The audit of the books of account at the Open Dialogue Foundation, requested by Minister Mariusz Kamiński, lasted for over a year. Currently, the case is being looked into by the prosecutor’s office.