The Disciplinary Spokesman of the Prosecutor General is conducting proceedings concerning a gross violation of the law and a breach of the dignity of office by Jerzy Ziarkiewicz, a former regional prosecutor in Lublin. An investigation is also underway into his failure to fulfill his duties and exceeding his powers. The Spokesman of the National Prosecutor's Office reported that during the inspection in the garage of the Lublin prosecutor's office, “documents collected in the course of preparatory proceedings conducted” by Ziarkiewicz were revealed.
On Friday, the spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, announced in a statement that the materials obtained from the analysis of files and the vetting conducted at the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Lublin had been forwarded to the Disciplinary Spokesman of the Prosecutor General.
“The Ombudsman has initiated disciplinary proceedings on suspicion of a disciplinary offence in the form of an obvious and gross violation of the law and a breach of the dignity of office by prosecutor Jerzy Ziarkiewicz. These proceedings remain ongoing, at an advanced stage,” he said.
A series of irregularities
On July 24, the Internal Affairs Department of the National Prosecutor's Office initiated an investigation into three acts of failure to perform duties and exceeding authority by the former Regional Prosecutor in Lublin. This concerns a number of irregularities in the functioning of this prosecutor's office during the period when Ziarkiewicz was its head, which were revealed by the query and lustration conducted in this prosecutor's office.
The Commissioner lists them in 13 points. They mainly concern delays, among others, in decreeing cases and assigning them to the relevant prosecutor's department, in making decisions on taking over a case for further investigation, in undertaking preparatory proceedings after excluding investigation materials for separate proceedings, in making decisions on discontinuation before initiating an investigation, in considering appeals against prosecutors' decisions.
Sometimes – according to the audit findings – the delay lasted a very long time. There was a delay of over 4 years and 4 months in taking action on the appeal filed by the suspect's defense attorney against the prosecutor's decision to demand items and conduct a search. The audit found a delay of over six months in the case of the assessment of the draft decision to discontinue the investigation conducted in the subordinate district prosecutor's office, and a delay of five months in making a decision to transfer the case to be conducted in another subordinate organizational unit.
Documents in the prosecutor's office garage
Moreover – according to the findings of the conducted vetting – the files of the main supervised cases conducted in subordinate units were withheld for many months in the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin. “During the vetting, documents collected during preparatory proceedings conducted by prosecutor Jerzy Ziarkiewicz were discovered in the utility room (garage) of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin” – added the spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office.
The conducted query and analysis of documents concerned cases remaining in the department of the former regional prosecutor in Lublin, Jerzy Ziarkiewicz, and his superior supervision over proceedings conducted in organizational units of the prosecutor's office of the Lublin region. This query covered 20 cases.
The lustration covered the activities of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin in the period from 1 January 2023 to 29 February 2024 – in total, during the lustration, the handbook files of 216 cases registered in the “Ds” repertory and the “Dsn” and “Ko” registers were examined.
Ziarkiewicz allegedly blocked cases concerning PiS politicians
In January, “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote about prosecutor Ziarkiewicz and storing files of preparatory proceedings of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Lublin in the garage. The regional prosecutor in Lublin allegedly blocked cases concerning politicians for years PISwhich were sent here because Ziarkiewicz is – according to the newspaper – “a trusted man of Ziobro's”. Before the expected inspection by new superiors – as it reported – these cases were hastily sent to subordinate prosecutors. After this publication, the National Prosecutor's Office began to query and examine cases remaining in the prosecutor's office.
Ziarkiewicz was dismissed in January. The regional prosecutor in Lublin is currently Cezary Maj.
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