Tag: Zbigniew Ziobro

On 17 March 2025, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin launched an investigation into the alleged abuse of power by officers of the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) and the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice. The investigation was initiated following an offence notification submitted by Bartosz Kramek, Chair of Supervisory Board of the Open Dialogue Foundation […]

The Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin has launched an investigation into a gross abuse of power by officials from the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA). The alleged offence occurred during the arrest of well-known businessman Przemysław Krych. Przemysław Krych is a financier and investor, widely regarded as a prominent […]

The Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin has opened an investigation into, among other issues, the alleged influence peddling in the Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) and the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) during proceedings led by the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office in Katowice. The case concerns a businessman who was detained by the CBA in 2017 after, as […]

In the previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration, the Public Prosecutor’s Office (PPO) had been significantly politically compromised. PPO, under the Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro, was the institution which caused the most direct harm to Polish citizens in 2015-2023. It has systemically pursued (often only perceived) political and business opponents, quashed dissent, and silenced critical […]

Following the change of government in October 2023, the new administration announced that it would restore the independence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. A key step in this direction was to be an audit of politically motivated criminal cases initiated between 2015 and 2023. However, the Open Dialogue Foundation warns that the course and results […]

This study was prepared as a submission to the European Commission’s 2025 Rule of Law Report 1. Introduction Since assuming power in October 2023, Poland’s new, Civic Coalition-led government has initiated efforts to restore the independence of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which had been compromised under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) administration and Prosecutor […]

“One year after the change of power, yet hundreds of people are still being prosecuted by the Prosecutor’s Office on charges tailored by the Law and Justice party,” says Bartosz Kramek, Chair of the Supervisory Board of the Open Dialogue Foundation, in an interview with naTemat.  This includes organisers of local Women’s Strike, participants in […]

Read the full article: ruleoflaw.pl

The Law and Justice (PiS) losing power did not result in an automatic re-establishment of the rule of law and in the prosecution enforcing accountability vis-à-vis the perpetrators. Even within the prosecution, the Ziobro system persists and resists change. The Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) had requested the National Public Prosecutor’s Office to review criminal proceedings […]

On 15 October 2023, the Open Dialogue Foundation launched its all-new project. ListyHańby (Hall Of Shame) is a new platform aimed at tracking the abuses of the rule of law in Poland committed by the political party PiS (Law and Justice) and its cronies during its majority government between 2015 and 2023.  Covering all levels […]

1. How did the parliamentary elections pan out? Following the parliamentary elections in October 2023, the political situation in Poland has changed substantially. According to the final count by the National Electoral Commission, turnout reached a record-setting 74.4%. In the lower house, the Sejm, the opposition, secured 248 seats, compared to the Law and Justice […]

On 20 October 2023, the Vice-President & Executive Director of the Open Dialogue Foundation (ODF) Martin Mycielski and Chair of the Supervisory Board Bartosz Kramek were hosted by member of the State Tribunal, lawyer, and attorney Jacek Dubois in an interview entitled “Rachunek za prokuratora” (“Footing the bill for a prosecutor”).  In this hour-long interview, they […]

The Law and Justice (PiS) Party and Ziobro arm themselves to strike fear into entrepreneurs; to strike them not with a stick, but with a truncheon. Michał Romanowski – Professor of commercial law, Warsaw University. Attorney-at-Law at the Romanowski i Wspólnicy Law Office. In a recent interview with Forbes, Arkadiusz Muś, one of Poland’s most […]

Like every year, ODF took an active part in the OSCE’s Warsaw Human Dimension Conference. Unlike in 2022 we didn’t just focus the assembly’s attention on rule of law challenges in Poland, but also presented our findings on financial exclusion stemming from the abuse of AML/CFT laws by authoritarian states. The Warsaw Human Dimension Conference […]

The Open Dialogue Foundation and the “Themis” Association of Judges have published a report outlining how the Polish public prosecutor’s office operated under the rule of Zbigniew Ziobro. Entrepreneurs speak out about harassment by investigators. The report features a number of stories of people who experienced repression by the public prosecutor’s office in Poland under […]