The Open Dialogue Foundation and several other NGOs appealed to Adam Bodnar to review the cases opened by the Public Prosecutor’s Office between 2015 and 2023 against opponents of the government in power at the time and take action to close them.
As indicated at the beginning of the public appeal, the problem of politicisation of the Prosecutor’s Office under the rule of Zbigniew Ziobro has been highlighted by such organisations as the Venice Commission, the European Parliament, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. That is why the Open Dialogue Foundation addressed an appeal to the current Prosecutor General and Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar to carry out ” an effective review of a number of politically motivated cases”. The authors also express hope that “in the case of investigations that show a so-called reasonable suspicion of insufficient grounds for prosecution, independent prosecutors will take appropriate steps to close them”.
In addition to this, the authors also ask that “the prosecutors and officers responsible for the abovementioned abuses be held accountable”. This would involve charges under Article 231 of the Penal Code, i.e. abuse of power, and in some cases also Articles 232–235 of the Penal Code (crimes against the justice system, such as influencing the actions of the court, making false statements and accusations, or fabricating evidence. The appeal indicates that the lawyers of the victims will as soon as possible submit appropriate motions to terminate the investigations.
Who was prosecuted for political reasons
ODF itself has already prepared a draft list of such cases. Other cases of political prosecutions have been publicised by the media, Citizens of Poland (as part of ObyPomocy group), the “PiS State” platform of the Paragraf-Państwo association, Lex Super Omnia association and the Committee for the Defence of Justice (focusing on the cases of persecuted prosecutors). Seven main groups of people affected by such political proceedings were identified. The first and most numerous are representatives of civil society, i.e. activists fighting for women’s rights, LGBT rights or human rights defenders working along the border with Belarus. In addition to them, victims to such proceedings were some judges and prosecutors, opposition politicians and local government officials, heads and officers of the special services, entrepreneurs and managers holding supervisory and managerial positions in state-owned companies and central state administration bodies, journalists and writers, as well as so-called “unfortunates” – people who accidentally came into conflict with the former ruling camp or its representatives, such as sports manager Cezary Kucharski or the participant in an accident with then-Prime Minister Beata Szydło, Sebastian Kościelnik.
“Legal harassment” and strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs)
Although in many cases not even an indictment was filed (and these cases can therefore be discontinued by a decision of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, based on Article 322 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), they still entailed numerous unpleasantnesses and difficulties for the harassed persons: from damage to their reputation, to problems with entering another country, accessing banking services, to temporary loss of liberty as a result of arbitrary arrests and detentions. At times, this caused deep trauma to those directly involved or to their relatives and colleagues, and entailed negative consequences for the companies and organisations they run.
The authors of the appeal also point out that numerous recurring mechanisms can be discerned in the above-mentioned cases, indicating the systemic dimension of the problem. These include: repetitive allegations without evidence, including those that defy common sense and logic; unfocused fact-finding investigations (i.e. without presenting charges against a specific person); reputational attacks on witnesses and suspects in media outlets (in reality propaganda media) favourable to the previous authorities, closely coordinated with the prosecution. In addition, sometimes witnesses were portrayed as suspects, and suspects or defendants were portrayed as guilty. They were demonised in the eyes of the public.
Another allegation made by the authors of the appeal is that the special services, especially the Central Anticorruption Bureau and Internal Security Agency, were abused by being involved in illegal surveillance in violation of the law. Endless pre-trial proceedings lasting years, detention prolonged to exert pressure on the detainee, sometimes repeatedly on the same charges, and demonstrative detentions. International legal assistance mechanisms were also abused. Some proceedings were retaliatory or repressive in nature, targeting representatives of particular social and professional groups in order to intimidate them. There have been cases of open threats, including against family members of those being harassed, cases of extortion, corruption and invocation of influence (protection racket).
All this means the described actions by the Prosecutor’s Office constitute ‘legal harassment’ and, in the case of critics of the previous government, also qualified as far-reaching strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs). In the latter category, Poland is at the disgraceful top of the European rankings, and a peculiarity of our country in recent years has been the significant number of such actions taken by public authorities. A number of NGOs, as well as well-known private individuals and thought leaders, led by the former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa, have signed the appeal.
Source: rp.pl
Read also:
In other media:
- Prawo.pl: More than 30 organisations appeal to review and close political investigations (February 13, 2024)
- Onet: Public appeal to Adam Bodnar. “Political investigations must be closed”(February 12, 2024)
- Gazeta Wyborcza: Public appeal to Adam Bodnar to end political investigations and rehabilitate the victims (February 12, 2024)
- OKO.press: NGOs: Bodnar, look into political prosecutions (February 12, 2024)
- Bankier: Public appeal for Justice Ministry review of “politically motivated prosecutions” from 2015–23 (February 12, 2024)
- Gazeta Wyborcza: Hold PiS to account for persecuting defenders of rule of law. Inquiry needed (February 2, 2024)
