Police deployed during stand-off over control of Poland's top court

A political stand-off over Poland's top court, the Constitutional Tribunal, has broken out after the government suspended its two senior justices and moved to bring criminal charges against them.

Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said he had requested stripping the court's President Bogdan Święczkowski and Vice-President Bartłomiej Sochański of their immunity from prosecution to bring criminal charges against them.

Right-wing politicians from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party gathered outside the court premises in Warsaw to protest against the move.

Riot police were deployed to prevent any demonstrators from entering the court building.

In a social media post, the Constitutional Tribunal wrote that the two men were still the legally appointed senior justices of the court.

"All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d'etat," it said.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government was acting to restore the rule of law.

In a social media post, Tusk wrote: "Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After years of Law and Justice's lawlessness, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way."

President Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by PiS, ordered his plane be turned back to Warsaw on his way to Senegal to attend the Summer Youth Olympic Games.

The Constitutional Tribunal was the spark that triggered Poland's long-running rule of law dispute after the PiS-led government took office in 2015.

The PiS majority in parliament quickly moved to appoint judges to the court to gain a majority there because the court has the power to decide on the legality of legislation.

Leading European courts - the European Court of Human Rights and the Court of Justice of the European Union - subsequently ruled the PiS majority had elected three of the judges improperly because they were duplicating positions that had been validly filled by the previous parliament.

The European courts ruled Poland's Constitutional Tribunal was no longer an "independent and impartial tribunal", and Tusk's government has used those rulings as a basis to stop publishing the tribunal's rulings.

Taking office in 2023, Tusk vowed to depoliticise the judiciary - but he has failed to undo the PiS-era changes, partially because Nawrocki and his PiS-backed predecessor Andrzej Duda used their presidential vetoes to block his attempts.

Nawrocki has also refused to swear in five Constitutional Tribunal judges elected by parliament since March on the grounds of alleged flaws in their selection procedure.

One of those judges, Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, has now been placed in temporary charge of the court.

Earlier this month, the Council of Europe's advisory body on constitutional matters, the Venice Commission, said Nawrocki should swear-in the judges to allow them to sit on the court's bench.

Żurek said Święczkowski and his vice-president should face criminal charges for not allowing the judges to adjudicate.

Some of Tusk's supporters have accused him of failing to act decisively to reverse the PiS-era reforms.

Parliamentary elections are scheduled next year, and some see his move as an attempt to boost Tusk's popularity among those voters.

But his actions have been criticised. In September, Tusk put forward a politician, Maciej Berek, a lawyer who served as a minister in his cabinet, as a judge candidate to the court.

Lawyer Marcin Matczak, a critic of the PiS-era judicial reform who has stated he considers Święczkowski to be the court's worst president, said his suspension had no legal basis "for a million reasons".

"Today's action at the Constitutional Tribunal, in my opinion, buries this body and the issue of the rule of law for two decades," Prof Matczak wrote on social media.

"Images of armed police and legal interpretations according to which the minister of justice can remove the president of the Constitutional Tribunal by decree will have a powerful, anti-rule of law backlash for years to come," he added.

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