The Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) overturned the verdict of the Provincial Administrative Court (WSA) against Lyudmyla Kozlovska. The NSA found that the material gathered did not lead to the conclusion that Kozlovska posed a threat to state security. This means that the expulsion of the President of the Open Dialogue Foundation from Poland and the European Union was unlawful and unjustified.
On Monday, 5 December, the NSA considered the cassation appeal and decided to overturn the verdict of the Voivodeship Administrative Court dated July 2021 concerning the president of the Open Dialogue Foundation, which was unfavourable to her. In its July verdict, the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw – despite three previous decisions by the same WSA which were favourable to Kozlovska – found that the Polish government was right to expel her from Poland. Lyudmyla Kozlovska had three previous successful judgements against the Polish government, meaning that three times the courts had found that the decision to expel her from Poland should be overturned because there were insufficient grounds for it.
It was only in the fourth verdict, as we wrote, that the WSA in Warsaw in July 2021 found that the Polish government was right and upheld the decision to ban her from entering Poland. The Open Dialogue Foundation points out that all members of the adjudicating panel in Kozlovska’s case have been appointed by the politicised “National Judiciary Council” (known as the “neo-KRS”). This very verdict was overturned today by the Supreme Administrative Court.
The evidence does not allow to state that Kozlovska posed a threat
According to information provided by the Open Dialogue Foundation, the material gathered, both classified and public, does not allow the NSA to state that Lyudmyla Kozlovska poses a threat to security of the state. According to the NSA, such statement is “an overstretch”.
“According to the judgement of the NSA, the administrative authorities did not refer to the evidence sent by the applicant, nor did they attempt to address in more detail in their reasoning the security rules in breach of which the administrative authority considers the failure to grant a residence permit,” reported the Foundation.
According to the Supreme Administrative Court, the verdict and decisions should be overturned and the administrative authority may present additional evidence. At the same time, it will have to consider both classified material and all public material submitted by the applicant or which is to be collected in the future.
The war against the Open Dialogue Foundation
In August 2018, the Head of the Internal Security Agency entered Kozlovska into the Schengen Information System (SIS). This meant that the activist who had a Ukrainian passport was banned from entering most EU countries, including Poland. She found out about it when she landed at Brussels airport.
Kozlovska’s expulsion was another stage in the war the Polish state is waging against the Open Dialogue Foundation. It all started in 2017 with the posting on Facebook of the text “Let the state stop: let’s deactivate the government!” by the husband of the President of the ODF and social activist Bartosz Kramek. In his post, Kramek considered, using the experience of the Ukrainian Maidan as an example, “how to stop the attack of the PiS party on the rule of law in Poland.”
Source: onet.pl
