After Tomasz Szmydt escaped to Belarus, PiS and Sovereign Poland politicians distanced themselves from him. However, in 2017, PiS president Jarosław Kaczyński intervened in the case of Szmydt and his children, which was pending in court. He recalled this two years later in a letter to “little Emi” – Szmydt's wife and one of the participants in the hate scandal at the Ministry of Justice during the PiS government.
In 2019, Jarosław Kaczyński replied to a letter from Emilia Szmydt, the former wife of Tomasz Szmydt – she was “little Emi”, who took part in the hate scandal.
“Little Emi” then wrote to the president of PiS because she felt “wronged by the actions of the justice system”, including the then deputy minister Łukasz Piebiak. Kaczyński assured her: “If you expect support from me, which I could provide while acting within the powers of parliamentarians, please let me know about my position and specify the problem.”
At the same time, in response, Kaczyński recalled the situation that had occurred two years earlier. He wrote that in 2017 he intervened in the case of Tomasz Szmydt and his children. He appealed to the Ombudsman for Children “regarding proceedings regarding establishing contacts between Mr. Tomasz Szmydt and his minor daughters”, an issue that was then considered by the court.
“The Ombudsman participated in the proceedings pending before the District Court in Sochaczew and applied to the President of the Court of Appeal in Łódź for internal administrative supervision of the proceedings,” Kaczyński wrote.
The document was published and described in 2019 by “Gazeta Wyborcza”. “Tomasz Szmydt confirmed to us that he asked Kaczyński for help regarding contacts with his daughters. The previous children's rights ombudsman, Marek Michalak, told 'Wyborcza' that the PiS president intervened with him several times regarding children. However, he does not remember this specific case,” she wrote in 2019 “Wyborcza”.
Jacek Sasin, a PiS politician, was asked about Kaczyński's letter on Friday on Radio Three. – Hundreds or thousands of people write to my parliamentary office, and I write to various institutions regarding their matters. This is the MP's job. You don't need to know these people or take responsibility for what they do, he said.
United Right politicians distance themselves from Szmydt
After Tomasz Szmydt fled to Belarus and applied for asylum there, United Right politicians began to distance themselves from him.
Zbigniew Ziobro, who was the Minister of Justice at the time when Szmydt was making a judicial career, wrote: “Contrary to D. Tusk's insinuations, I had no contact with this judge and I never met him.”
The then deputy minister of justice, Michał Wójcik, said on TVN24: – Hand on heart, I did not know this man.
Wójcik: Ziobro did not know Judge SzmydtTVN24
Jarosław Kaczyński, asked by journalists how it happened that a person like Szmydt was close to the “reform” of the justice system, said that “all those who spoke out against the radical revolution in the early 1990s are responsible for this.” – Unfortunately, clairvoyance is not given to Minister Ziobro, nor to me, although I had nothing to do with it – he added.
Judge Szmydt's case
On Monday, at a press conference in Minsk, Tomasz Szmydt announced that he was asking the Belarusian authorities for asylum. He also talked about “resignation from the position of judge of the Republic of Poland with immediate effect“. He argued that resigning from his position was an expression of “a protest against the policy pursued by the Polish authorities towards Belarus and Russia.” So far, he has worked as a judge at the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw.
The National Prosecutor's Office initiated therefore, the proceedings involve espionage. The Disciplinary Court at the Supreme Administrative Court lifted Szmydt's immunity, authorized his detention and provisional arrest and suspended him from his duties. The President of the Supreme Administrative Court accepted Tomasz Szmydt's declaration of resigning from the office of judge.
Former judge Tomasz Szmydt is one of the heroes of the hate scandal during the PiS government, which concerns the slander of judges opposed to the reforms of the United Right in the judiciary. Recently, the investigation into the scandal has gained momentum, and a three-person team has been appointed to conduct the investigation at the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Wrocław.
Main photo source: Paweł Supernak/PAP