Żurek, who is also prosecutor general, told public broadcster TVP Info on Sunday that he regarded the entry as a matter for criminal law, saying it amounted to unlawful entry into the court’s building.
He accused the president of behaving irresponsibly by pushing through a police cordon with his security detail, and said Nawrocki’s aides had acted inside the building as if they would face no consequences.
The crisis began on Friday, when the court's website announced that its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, had been suspended for a month and that Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, who was chosen by the current parliament, would lead the Tribunal because she had the longest judicial service.
A statement bearing the names of seven judges, including Święczkowski and Sochański, said on Saturday that her actions were “completely unlawful."
Korwin-Piotrowska argued that the document was unsigned and that she could not be sure all the judges had issued it.
Overnight into Saturday, Nawrocki cut short a trip to Senegal and went to the court after meeting Święczkowski and Supreme Court head Zbigniew Kapiński.
A video published by Judge Maciej Berek shows the president squeezing between people standing in the doorway.
The two sides give different accounts of what happened.
Korwin-Piotrowska recounted that she went outside with other judges to greet the president, but he showed no sign of stopping.
She said he pressed against her, tried to push past and shouted at those chosen by the current parliament that they were not judges, while his team claimed he was looking for the keys to Sochański’s office.
In her view, Nawrocki, exceeded his powers and "burst into" an independent tribunal.
The president’s office has said it will file a complaint with prosecutors over an alleged breach of the head of state’s inviolability.
Żurek added that it was "a matter of weeks" before the Tribunal held its first hearings and began considering cases.
He said thet’s general assembly of judges, which Korwin-Piotrowska has called for Tuesday, should meet as soon as possible, and that the court should address its budget because staff were waiting to learn what would happen next year.
He accused the Tribunal of acting on political orders while citizens’ complaints went unaddressed for years.
The latest row centres on six new judges chosen by the current parliament in March.
President Karol Nawrocki, an ally of PiS, swore in only two of them; the other four took the oath at a ceremony in parliament instead.
Święczkowski says it had no legal effect and has refused to let those judges hear cases.
The government points out that the president cannot block parliament’s will, while Nawrocki argues that he is entitled to check parliamentary procedure before accepting an oath.
Separately, Kapiński has called a meeting of Supreme Court judges for 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday to discuss “threats to the constitutional order."
He said the circumstances were so extraordinary that the seven-day notice period required by law could not be observed.
(ał)
Source: PAP