Michał Ostrowski, Robert Hernand and Krzysztof Sierak assigned to local departments

Adam Bodnar he sent three of his deputies: Michał Ostrowski, Robert Hernand and Krzysztof Sierak to work in local departments of the Department of Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office. These prosecutors were deputy prosecutors general also when the current one held this position PiS MP Zbigniew Ziobro. They themselves oppose this decision.

The spokeswoman of the Prosecutor General, Prosecutor Anna Adamiak, commented on this information on Monday. As she emphasized, deputy prosecutors general do not have “statutory, strictly defined competences, they act only with the authorization issued by the prosecutor general.”

“This means that the Prosecutor General decides which of the deputies and what powers will be transferred. Moreover, the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office (Article 3, paragraph t 1) indicates the Prosecutor General's Deputies as prosecutors who may carry out activities related to conducting proceedings, especially situations when the Prosecutor General does not delegate his own powers to them. Therefore, as prosecutors of the National Prosecutor's Office, deputies are entitled to perform official duties within the structure of the National Prosecutor's Office,” wrote prosecutor Adamiak. She added that Bodnar's decision does not mean that he will no longer be the superior of the three deputies.

“Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar's task of building an independent, depoliticized, efficient and professional prosecutor's office must be carried out in cooperation with prosecutors who share such a vision. This cooperation must be based on mutual trust and respect for the same values,” Adamiak explained.

She assessed that the deputies, who were “appointed not by Adam Bodnar, but by the previous Prosecutors General, today openly manifest a completely different way of thinking about the prosecutor's office.” “They declare consistent opposition to the reforms that take place as a result of the change in the position of the Prosecutor General after the elections on October 15, 2023. This makes it pointless for Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar to entrust them with his own powers,” the prosecutor said.

“In this situation, the only legally permissible form of work for the above-mentioned deputies is the performance of official duties as part of ongoing proceedings at the National Prosecutor's Office. Hence the decision of the Prosecutor General,” said prosecutor Adamiak in response.

Prosecutors Ostrowski and Sierak are to perform their duties in the so-called PZ-etach [wydziałach zamiejscowych Prokuratury Krajowej, zajmujących się przestępczością zorganizowaną – red.] from March 3, 2025, and Hernand from February 3. Ostrowski – in the Lower Silesian department in Wrocław, Hernand – in the Masovian department in Warsaw, and Sierak – in the Silesian department in Katowice. The basis for these referrals is, among others: art. 31 pairs 1 point 1 of the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office, which states that the prosecutor general is the superior of his deputies.

The National Prosecutor's Office previously informed that prosecutor Ostrowski was charged with violating the dignity of the prosecutor's office, related to “rebellion” and questioning the change in the management of the prosecutor's office, and his case has been in the Disciplinary Court at the GUT since June. In turn, prosecutor Hernand is charged with violating the dignity of the prosecutor's office for his behavior on January 12, when he recorded a conversation with Bodnar on the phone, which was related to the dismissal of prosecutor Dariusz Barski from his position as prosecutor general.

On Sunday, prosecutors Ostrowski, Hernand and Sierak, who were sent to new jobs, published a statement on the X website, claiming that Adam Bodnar had attempted to illegally deprive them of their functions as deputy prosecutors general. “Therefore, as representatives of the management of the entire prosecutor's office, who, in accordance with the Act, may be deprived of the function of Deputy Prosecutor General only with the written consent of the President of the Republic of Poland, we have been deprived of the opportunity to hold our functions,” they wrote.

Pursuant to Art. 14 of the Law on the Public Prosecutor's Office, the National Prosecutor and other deputy prosecutors general are appointed after obtaining the opinion of the president, and dismissed with his written consent.

“It is also obvious to us that each prosecutor of the National Prosecutor's Office may be delegated to any unit if his superiors decide that such a delegation serves the institution. However, depriving us of the function of Deputy Prosecutor General, which was entrusted to us at the request of the Minister of Justice of the Public Prosecutor, is another thing General by the Prime Minister and after obtaining a positive opinion from the President of the Republic of Poland,” said Ostrowski, Hernand and Sierak.

They added that the tasks of the deputy prosecutor general certainly did not include being a “line” prosecutor, even – as they noted – in such a serious unit as the Branch Department of the National Prosecutor's Office.

Former Prosecutor General and former head of the Ministry of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro also assessed that this was another open deprivation of the president's Andrzej Duda his statutory rights. “The presidential consent is a statutory guarantee of protection of the Prosecutor General's deputies against political pressure from the government,” Ziobro wrote on Monday on the X platform.

The conflict in the prosecutor's office is related to the change in the management of the National Prosecutor's Office, which took place on January 12. On that day, Adam Bodnar handed Dariusz Barski, acting as the National Prosecutor, a document stating that his reinstatement from retirement “was made in violation of applicable regulations and had no legal effects.”

This decision caused controversy. Barski, who was supported by President Andrzej Duda in this matter, was a close associate of Zbigniew Ziobro, who reinstated Barski to service on February 16, 2022.

Therefore – in January – by decision of the Prime Minister Donald Tusk Prosecutor Jacek Bilewicz (currently deputy prosecutor general) became the acting national prosecutor until Barski's successor was selected in the competition. The competition was won in the second half of February by prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk, who was appointed by the head of government as the new national prosecutor in mid-March.