An open letter from the Minister of Justice Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar to former President Lech Wałęsa and the other signatories of the public appeal for a review of politically motivated prosecutions between 2015 and 2023 and the rehabilitation of victims was published on Thursday.
The open letter published on the website of the Ministry of Justice is a response to the public appeal to Minister Adam Bodnar published on Monday on the website of the Open Dialogue Foundation. The signatories of the appeal include the former President of the Republic of Poland Lech Wałęsa, over a dozen foundations, associations and non-governmental organisations — including the Open Dialogue Foundation, Citizens of Poland, the All-Poland Women’s Strike, Border Group and Themis Judges Association. Other signatories include Leszek Balcerowicz, Agnieszka Holland, Zbigniew Hołdys, Tomasz Lis, Janina Ochojska and Andrzej Zoll.
“As citizens of the Republic of Poland, supporting the victims of the arbitrary and highly questionable actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office led by your predecessor, Zbigniew Ziobro, we would like to address you with concern and alarm regarding the still ongoing political investigations initiated between 2015 and 2023, under the United Right government,” reads the appeal.
Its authors’ requests include appointing “a team of prosecutors to analyse the rationale for a continuation of investigations initiated and conducted between 2015 and 2023 in which there is a highly justified suspicion of the use of the Prosecutor’s Office as a political tool to intimidate, harass and falsely accuse a number of people of offences either not committed or highly questionable simply because, for various reasons, they had become inconvenient to the previous ruling camp”.
Eight years of United Right politicians in power
Adam Bodnar replied that “the issue raised in the appeal is extremely significant and is one of the priorities of my mission as Prosecutor General of the Republic of Poland. I fully share the conviction of the need to conduct an effective review and analysis of cases where there is any suspicion that they may have been politically motivated”. At the same time, he noted that conducting such an analysis is “a time-consuming challenge and requires the involvement of many prosecutors at different levels. The reason for this is the numerous and contradictory actions taken by the Public Prosecutor’s Office against various social groups and individuals during the eight years that the United Right politicians have been in power.”
Bodnar further pointed out that these were proceedings “aimed at restricting the freedom of action or stopping the activity of social activists and NGO leaders, as well as attempts to repress representatives of excluded groups.” “I mean representatives of the LGBTQ+ community, organisers of Equality Marches, representatives of ethnic or national minorities, or the many people and organisations supporting refugees on the Polish–Belarusian border.
However, the specificity of cases taken up by the Public Prosecutor’s Office also applies to many other groups who were treated as political enemies by the previous authorities. These include journalists investigating irregularities in the activities of politicians in power or representatives of special services pointing out the instrumental, political use of the state apparatus. It also includes opposition politicians, entrepreneurs and representatives of many professional groups which were targeted by the previous government. Finally, this group includes members of the judiciary who uphold the independence of the courts and the prosecution service,” the minister stated.
Bodnar: no centralised control over the work of investigators
According to Bodnar “each case must be examined individually, independently, based on the legal standard and an assessment of the grounds for bringing the case, as well as the evidence collected on it”, so that “the process of verification of the cases raised in the appeal should be carried out in a dispersed manner, in view of the aforementioned diversity of the subject matter of the proceedings, their number, as well as their local jurisdiction”.
Bodnar assured readers that the actions of the prosecutors would, of course, be subject to control in accordance with the applicable legal standards, but the “model of centralised control over the work of investigators, which was usually characteristic of the previous government”, would not be practised.
Source: rp.pl
In other media:
- TVN24: Minister Bodnar supports review of “politically motivated prosecutions” (February 16, 2024)
- Forsal: Bodnar responds to ‘politically motivated prosecutions’ (February 16, 2024)
- PAP: Minister Bodnar responds to authors of public appeal (February 15, 2024)
- Interia: Bodnar writes to Wałęsa. Announced “review of political proceedings” (February 15, 2024)
- Onet: Open letter. Bodnar responds to public appeal for review of “politically motivated prosecutions” (February 15, 2024)
