Tag: rule of law in Poland

Maciej Wąsik has been ordered to publish an apology to the Open Dialogue Foundation. A court of law has so decided. The deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration suggested that the Foundation of had ties with Russia and engaged into money laundering practices.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior lost the defamation case in court. What does a hearing look like, during which a representative of the government can’t count on the judge’s favour? We play it from the minutes and recordings.

Minister Zbigniew Ziobro’s statement prompted a fierce Twitter exchange between the former prime minister Marek Belka and Maciej Wąsik, the deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration. The Law and Justice politician called Belka a “full-fledged Bolshevik” and Marek Belka, in turn, reminded him that he had lost a case in court.

Maciej Wąsik, deputy head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration and deputy coordinator of secret services, lost the trial for violation of personal rights. He accused the Open Dialogue Foundation of connections with Russia, hybrid activities and money laundering, and accused the head of the Foundation Bartosz Kramek of calling for bloodshed.

The Deputy Minister of the Interior lost the defamation case in court. What does a hearing look like, during which a representative of the government can’t count on the judge’s favour? We play it from the minutes and recordings.

A verdict was issued on the case brought by Bartosz Kramek, Lyudmyla Kozlovska and the Open Dialogue Foundation founded by them against Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and Administration Maciej Wąsik.

Since the Law and Justice (PiS)-led United Right coalition took power in 2015, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of politicisation of the public prosecution service, which has been transformed into a tool serving political and personal interests of the ruling camp and its members. This resulted in a growing number of politically motivated cases of investigations carried out primarily against those regarded as opponents of the government.

The below case is an extended version of a case presented in our upcoming report entitled “Polish Public Prosecutor’s Office: Selected Cases of Malicious Prosecution and Dereliction of Duties since 2015”, published with the cooperation of the Themis Judges’ Association, the Racist and Xenophobic Behaviour Monitoring Centre (OMZRiK) and ObyPomoc – Obywatele RP. The GetBack […]

On February 1st, in the Warsaw headquarters of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODHIR), the three leaders of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s (OSCE PA) human rights committee met with Polish civil society representatives at the forefront of defending the rule of law in the country. The purpose of the meeting was […]

Read at: https://balkaninsight.com/2021/12/14/taking-the-fight-against-polands-government-into-the-international-arena/

After years of mostly ineffective protests against the dismantling of the independent judiciary, human-rights standards, relationship with the EU and, finally, against the ongoing deaths of migrants at the Belarus border, you’d be excused for thinking Poles must have lost hope. [Opinion] Human-rights watchdog are collecting cases of unjust imprisonment and deprivation of liberty which […]

On 26 October 2021, the District Court in Lublin refused to tighten the preventive measures imposed on Bartosz Kramek, the Head of the Board and a trustee of the Open Dialogue Foundation, finding them unreasonable and disproportionate. Thus, the court lifted the ban on leaving the country and the police probation, i.e. Bartek’s obligation to […]

In the past few weeks, we have filed a cassation appeal with the Supreme Administrative Court (NSA). We have appealed against the latest “judgment” which was issued by the Provincial Administrative Court (WSA) in Warsaw in July 2021 (which was served with us in September). Contrary to the three previous decisions, the “court” agreed, for the […]

Following the detention of our Supervisory Board Chair Bartosz Kramek in June 2021, the pro-government and public media further intensified their smear campaign against him and ODF.  In response to a public appeal in support of Kramek, initiated by former Polish president Lech Wałęsa, Stanisław Żaryn, the spokesperson of the Minister-Coordinator for Special Services, personally […]

Since the Law and Justice (PiS)-led United Right coalition (composed of PiS and its two minor partners – Solidarna Polska and Porozumienie) took power in 2015, we have witnessed an unprecedented level of politicization of the public prosecution service that has been transformed into a tool serving political and personal interests of the ruling camp and its members. This resulted in a growing number of politically motivated cases of investigations carried out against those regarded as opponents of the government. The continuous changes to the criminal justice system (Criminal Code, Code of Criminal Procedure, Law on the Prosecutor’s Service) expand the powers of the prosecution, amplifying the so-called inequality of arms between the sides of the criminal proceedings and a general repressiveness of the system.