A Warsaw judge, Tomasz Jaskłowski, is being prosecuted in connection with his judgment unfavourable to a right-wing newspaper. The complaint against him was filed by Tomasz Sakiewicz, who lost a case presided over by the judge. He is the second Warsaw judge to face trouble for sentences handed down on Gazeta Polska. This is the second Warsaw judge to face trouble for sentences handed down on Gazeta Polska.
Kramek and the ODF are taking actions to defend their good name. They have filed a series of personal injury lawsuits at courts and are winning the cases. One was a lawsuit brought by Kramek against the Gazeta Polska weekly and its Editor-in-Chief, Tomasz Sakiewicz (pictured at the top during another trial). Kramek sued the weekly for its August 2017 cover depicting him as a Wehrmacht soldier.
It was a photoshopped image. An image of Kramek had been incorporated into a historical photograph showing German soldiers dismantling the border barrier during the invasion of Poland in September 1939. He was portrayed alongside Ryszard Petru and Grzegorz Schetyna, also photoshopped in. The reworked photo was titled: “We Know the Plans for the Autumn Coup. A New September Campaign”.
Sakiewicz defended himself at court, claiming that the cover was meant to be funny and was intended as a satire. However, the District Court in Warsaw ruled that Kramek had been defamed. The court ordered that he be issued an apology, also obliging the defendant to pay PLN 15,000 compensation in his favour and PLN 10,000 in favour of a social organisation. The judgment was issued by Judge Tomasz Jaskłowski.
The sentence was upheld by the Court of Appeals in Warsaw, and then by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court issued its judgment in February 2023, and in June, four disciplinary proceedings against the judge were suddenly instituted. The complaint with the disciplinary officer was filed by Tomasz Sakiewicz.
He is now the second judge of the District Court in Warsaw to be harassed for judgments unfavourable to Gazeta Polska. The first bullied judge was Andrzej Sterkowicz, against whom the newspaper launched a vicious campaign. As a result, the judge is now facing criminal charges. His case is described later in the article.
Why is the judge under investigation?
Judge Tomasz Jaskłowski is being hounded by a local disciplinary officer at the Court of Appeals in Warsaw. His name is Adam Jaworski and he is a neo-judge who used to be a Warsaw city councillor linked to the Law and Justice party.
He has laid four disciplinary charges against the judge. Two of these charges are linked to Kramek’s case against Gazeta Polska, and the other two are related to CHF loan lawsuits that the judge presided over. They look like they were put wrapped up together just to make the charges look more serious.
Hence, the officer has charged the judge with a disciplinary offence under Article 107(1) (1), which refers to a manifest and flagrant breach of the law. The judge allegedly perpetrated this abusive act in his oral substantiation of the judgment, which did not meet formal requirements. The second charge concerns an offence under Article 107 (1) (5), i.e. a breach of the dignity of the judicial office. The entire dispute evolved around what the judge said in the courtroom. The court hearings have been recorded, so it is clear what the judge said. As the case records show, he was just taking procedural steps.
However, the disciplinary officer has qualified such actions as a disciplinary offence. In his opinion, the judge violated the judicial code of ethics. The officer did not like the judge’s remarks regarding the way of conducting a trial.
These included, in particular:
- Dismissal of a motion to hear witnesses called by Gazeta Polska, such as a Law and Justice politician. The judge resolved that the case regarding the cover is simple in terms of evidence, as it only needs to be determined whether the photomontage was within the bounds of press criticism, and dismissed the motion. He said: “In my opinion, these witnesses are not needed here. Hearing the parties [the defendant and the plaintiff – ed.] is not necessary, either.”
- Passing of a judgment. Addressing the parties regarding their motions to present evidence, which would have prolonged the judicial procedure, the judge stated: “I can pass a judgment today. Well, I don’t care, but I may not pass any judgment either.” Ultimately, the judge dismissed the motions.
Where did such allegations come from? Judge Jaskłowski ruled twice on the cover case. The first judgment was overturned on formal grounds by the Court of Appeal, which ruled that the judge had failed to address all essential issues in his oral substantiation of the judgment. This resulted in starting a disciplinary action against the judge.
When the case was remitted back to the court, it returned to Judge Jasklowski. This type of determination, anyway, resulted from the legislation enacted by the Law and Justice party. A second, identical judgment was passed. The court ordered an apology be made to Mr Kramek. The ruling was later upheld by the Supreme Court.
In reality, a disciplinary officer is prosecuting a judge for taking legitimate judicial actions,
whose rationale is determined by the court of appeal as part of instance-based review.
Judge: “I was taking procedural actions.”
However, in the background of this case, there is an unspoken allegation that the judge was biased. The disciplinary charges have been described by Niezależna.pl, a website also linked to Mr Sakiewicz. The authors of the article directly blamed the judge for depriving Sakiewicz of the right to speak and for making “weird comments”.
The website’s publicists are outraged that Judge Jaskłowski said to Kramek, “Sir, I am a bit reluctant to act on this case, because you have spoken in my defence.” This was a reference to Kramek’s role in campaigns in defence of a free judiciary. That is, in defence of all judges. Niezależna.pl also did not like that the judge said he carried the Constitution on his person.
However, that was not all. A further two charges were brought against the judge in connection with CHF loan cases. The judge warned the counterparties that he might not be able to issue the judgment, because he was planning to retire next year. He was telling the truth. According to the disciplinary officer, in one of these cases, he also admitted testimonial evidence too late.
These two claims look as if they were just added up to the charges concerning the judgment in Gazeta Polska.
Tomasz Jaskłowski is a judge with 30 years of courtroom experience. No disciplinary actions had previously been taken against him. He commented on being prosecuted for his judgment on the Gazeta Polska case to OKO.press as follows: “One must not be punished for the words spoken in the courtroom during the sentencing process. I was just taking decision on the motions filed by the counterparties. I have not transgressed any boundaries, nor offended anyone.”
The judge also adds: “I have no idea why I was prosecuted for the CHF loan cases. I have 300 such cases, in addition to which I have 300 other cases, so a total of 600” [the number of cases is growing; two years ago the judge was in charge of 200 cases – ed.]. And now I am being reproached for not allowing witness statements until the trial.”
What did Sterkowicz do to Gazeta Polska?
Similar problems resulting from issuing judgments that are unfavourable to Gazeta Polska journalists are being faced by Judge Andrzej Sterkowicz of the District Court in Warsaw. He was in also in charge of a number of cases involving Sakiewicz’s mass media, including one against Dorota Kania, an ex-journalist at Wprost and Gazeta Polska, and one against Gazeta Polska itself and related media outlets.
In autumn 2013, Judge Sterkowicz obligated Ms Kania and Mr Sakiewicz, the then Editor-in-Chief of Gazeta Polska Codziennie to apologise to Prosecutor Edward Zalewski and pay him PLN 10,000 in compensation. In her article titled “Pressures in the Macierewicz Case”, published by GPC, Ms Kania wrote that Zalewski interfered with the investigation into the Military Information Services clearance report and sought to bring charges against Antoni Macierewicz.
Sterkowicz found the suggestions “untrue, damaging to a prosecutor’s dignity and honour and undermining confidence in the entire public prosecution system”. The Court of Appeals in Warsaw upheld the judgment.
In January 2014, Sterkowicz handed down a judgment in a civil suit brought against the Wprost weekly magazine by the Rector of the University of Gdansk, Professor Andrzej Ceynowa. In 2007, in a series of articles published by Wprost, Dorota Kania accused Professor Ceynowa of collaboration with the communist security service. Nevertheless, a vetting board later cleared the rector’s good name and the criminal court convicted Kania of slandering him.
In a civil trial, Judge Sterkowicz ordered Kania and the then Editor-in-Chief of Wprost, Stanisław Janecki, to apologise to Ceynowa and pay him PLN 150,000 in damages. The judge argued that Ms Kania had “failed to observe the principle of diligence and journalistic integrity, was negligent and unreliable, and disseminated false and hurtful information”.
This judgment was partly modified by the court of appeals, which upheld the obligation to apologise, but cancelled the compensation duty.
How they started to pursue Sterkowicz
The judgments handed down in the cases brought by Zalewski and Ceynowa against Ms Kania attracted a wave of criticism from Gazeta Polska against Sterkowicz. The crackdown on the judge took off fully after Law and Justice came to power and began their “reform” of the judiciary. In May 2016, Gazeta Polska Codziennie vetted the judge’s 80-year-old father. Shortly after the release of this article, Sterkowicz’s father died of a heart attack.
The actions taken by the right-wing media company turned out to be effective. After his father’s death, Judge Sterkowicz started to disengage from trials against Gazeta Polska.
However, the daily did not let him go. At the beginning of November 2017, Dorota Kania published an article in which she described Sterkowicz’s private life affairs, relating to his divorce and disputes with his ex-wife over the custody of their child. Among other things, she reported on the case conducted before the family court, which was held in camera.
Kania wrote that disputes between the judge and his ex-wife had been screened by several prosecutors’ offices in the Małopolska Region. Notices were filed by, among others, his ex-wife. The cases were referred to district prosecutors’ offices, but some were taken over by the internal affairs division of the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
However, the Disciplinary Board at the Court of Appeal in Krakow refused to waive Sterkowicz’s immunity from prosecution. The Board did not consider that he had committed a crime in his disputes with his wife.
However, the Public Prosecutor’s Office filed an appeal with the illegal Disciplinary Chamber constituted by the Law and Justice. In June 2019, the Judge’s immunity was waived, which allowed the Prosecutor to file charges against him. The chamber allowed two criminal charges to be brought against him: trespassing on his ex-wife’s home and insulting a police officer (which allegedly happened during police intervention).
The judge is now awaiting a criminal trial. Moreover, disciplinary action is also to be taken against him. The disciplinary officer even intended to suspend him from office. However, to date, this motion has not yet been addressed.
Source: OKO.press
Read also:
In other media:
