After almost six years of legal battles, the Voivodeship Administrative Court (VAC) ordered that the pro-democracy activist and President of the Open Dialogue Foundation be removed from the list of people not allowed into Poland. Services subordinate to the Law and Justice party considered her a threat to Poland after ODF objected to the politicisation of the courts.
The case dates back to mid-2017, when protests against laws politicising the judiciary were taking place. At that time, Bartosz Kramek, Chair of ODF’s Supervisory Board and husband of Lyudmyla Kozlovska, published an appeal in the media entitled “Let the State Come to a Stop: Let’s Shut Down the Government!”. Therein he urged civic resistance to PiS. He and the Foundation became public enemies for those in power.
Inspections were sent to the Foundation, which the authorities tried to take under their control, the ABW (Internal Security Agency) was in charge of this campaign. After a year of such actions, in August 2018, the head of the Office for Foreigners, at the request of services subordinate to the Law and Justice Party, entered Kozlovska, a Ukrainian citizen, into the Schengen Information System (SIS) and marked her with the highest alert. This resulted in her expulsion from Poland. Kozlovska claims that this happened at the “personal request” of Mariusz Kamiński and Maciej Wąsik, to whom the services were subordinate.
The services explained that the activist posed a threat to the country’s security, but concealed exactly in what way she posed a threat. All European Union countries, except for Poland, soon allowed the activist to stay on their territory. Kozlovska was invited to speak about this political chicanery in France and Belgium.
Since 2018, courts in Poland have ruled in Kozlovska’s favour five times, ordering the Mazowieckie Voivode and/or the Office for Foreigners to reconsider the case. Once, a panel of neo-judges issued an unfavourable decision, which was later overturned by the Supreme Administrative Court. The Office for Foreigners, controlled by Law and Justice (PiS) people, appealed against the rulings that had been passed in the activist’s favour.
On 28 November 2023, the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw overturned the decision of the head of the Office for Foreigners in the case of Kozlovska and ordered the Office to issue a document certifying that Kozlovska’s data is no longer on the list of persons whose residence in the Republic of Poland is ‘undesirable’. This is to be done within 14 days of the judgment, which is not yet final.
“This is a precedent-setting ruling in this case. The court was very negative about the action of the head of the Office for Foreigners,” comments Joanna Koch, Kozlovska’s attorney.
“From the justification of the verdict of the Voivodeship Administrative Court, it appears that they [the Office for Foreigners / Internal Security Agency – ed.] did not take into account our evidence or documents from Moldova where the case against me had been closed. We can presume that the reports of the Internal Security Agency were largely based on fake news and that this explains why the Agency did not want to reveal the reasons for my expulsion,” says Kozlovska.
The activist hopes that in the “new political environment” the Office for Foreigners will comply with the verdict. But she also hopes that Minister Kierwinski will soon change the leadership of the Office for Foreigners, one of the many institutions “closely subordinated to the interests of the previous ruling party”.
In another case, the couple in charge of ODF has already won a lawsuit against Maciej Wąsik — though not yet final— for violating their personal rights: he accused them of having ties with Russia and of money laundering. The verdict in the appeal case is expected in the coming days.
Source: OKO.press
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In other media:
- Notes From Poland: Court overturns Ukrainian NGO head’s Poland entry ban introduced by former government (January 5, 2024)
- Wprost: Court handed down a judgement in Lyudmyla Kozlovska’s case (January 5, 2024)
- Gazeta Wyborcza: Lyudmyla Kozlovska regains right to stay in Poland after six years (January 5, 2024)
- Onet: Lyudmyla Kozlovska has the right to stay in Poland. Landmark judgment of the administrative court (January 4, 2024)
