Anna Adamiak, speaking for the Prosecutor General’s Office, said on Tuesday that the motion stemmed from work by "Investigative Team No. 3" at the National Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has examined the use of the Pegasus surveillance system, a spyware tool whose alleged use by Polish security services has been under investigation.
According to Adamiak, prosecutors believe there is a “sufficiently justified suspicion” that Święczkowski, while serving as National Public Prosecutor between June 2020 and July 2021, exceeded his authority by ordering Prosecutor Paweł Wilkoszewski to conduct an oversight review of operations carried out by the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (CBA) against prominent lawyer and politician Roman Giertych.
Adamiak said the order was given without the required authorization. She added that Święczkowski knew CBA files contained material protected by defense secrecy and attorney-client privilege, and that his instruction led to disclosure of those protected details to an unauthorised person.
Święczkowski was appointed the head of the constitutional court in December.
In a separate development, National Public Prosecutor’s Office spokesman Przemysław Nowak said a renewed motion has been sent to the State Tribunal seeking to lift the immunity of the First President of the Supreme Court, Małgorzata Manowska.
Nowak said the motion concerns two suspected offenses. The first involves allegedly unlawful use of circular, or remote, voting in the Supreme Court collegium, an internal advisory body, by counting non-participation as abstention rather than requiring explicit declarations for, against or abstaining.
The second concerns the alleged failure to execute a final order of the Olsztyn Regional Court in the country's northeast in a matter involving Judge Paweł Juszczyszyn.
Nowak noted that these allegations were the subject of motions filed on July 16, and that the State Tribunal "has not yet ruled on them on the merits."
Also on Tuesday, National Public Prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk asked the Supreme Court’s Chamber of Professional Liability to lift the immunity of Prosecutor Paweł Wilkoszewski.
The National Public Prosecutor’s Office said the evidence gathered by Investigative Team No. 3 allows for a “sufficiently justified suspicion” that Wilkoszewski exceeded his authority.
Adamiak said that, given the nature of the alleged violations described in the immunity request, the prosecutor-general has suspended Wilkoszewski from duty. Korneluk has also requested the initiation of disciplinary proceedings against him.
The Polish justice minister in the summer pledged to restore the rule of law after years of contested legal changes under the previous right-wing government.
(rt/gs)
Source: PAP