Last summer, the world watched as Poland’s ruling PiS (Law and Justice) Party instituted a series of “reforms” designed to intimidate or replace much of the state’s judiciary. The European Union has continued to put pressure on Polish authorities to revitalize judicial independence, but apparently the crackdown continues.
The Guardian reports that three high-profile Polish judges have complained of state-sponsored political intimidation:
Judges involved in politically sensitive cases or who have expressed opposition to threats to judicial independence have told the Guardian they are frequently threatened with disciplinary proceedings and even criminal charges, and in many cases are subjected to allegations of corruption and hate campaigns orchestrated by leading PiS politicians.
“I became an enemy of the state,” said Waldemar Żurek, a district court judge in the southern city of Kraków, who served as spokesman for the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), the body that appoints and disciplines Polish judges, until it was taken over by government appointees this year.
As the public face of the KRS’s attempts to argue for judicial independence, Żurek received hundreds of abusive and threatening messages to his work phone after false allegations about his personal life were published in pro-government media outlets. Members of his family were also targeted.
Judicial independence is perpetually fragile–in every country, and in every era.
The Interdependent Third Branch 