The National Prosecutor's Office asked 11 regional prosecutor's offices to present internal audits of cases that raised doubts as to the way they were conducted or possibly elements of politicization of these cases. We managed to initially establish that these are 600 proceedings – said Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, director of the Department of Preparatory Proceedings of the National Prosecutor's Office, in “#BezKitu”. She is the chairwoman of the team of prosecutors appointed to investigate cases from 2016-2023.
In mid-August, a team was established at the National Prosecutor's Office to investigate proceedings from 2016-2023, i.e. the period when the government was in power. Law and Justice.
The chairman of the team is prosecutor Katarzyna Kwiatkowska. On Friday, in the “#BezKitu” program, she was asked about the arrangements so far.
– The National Prosecutor's Office asked 11 regional prosecutor's offices to present internal audits of cases that raised doubts as to the way they were conducted or possibly elements of politicization of these cases. We managed to initially establish that the number of these cases is 600 proceedings. Regional prosecutors continue to send further lists of cases that will be analyzed by the team, she said.
When asked whether prosecutors already knew that there were 600 such potential cases that “were not undertaken because they were not in favor of the then government for political reasons,” she said that “some cases ended with decisions not to initiate.” – Refusal to initiate means that the case is concluded in a very short time, without any procedural or evidentiary activities being carried out – she noted.
– Looking at the lists of cases we received, they show, among other things, that a large number of proceedings ending with decisions refusing to initiate took place at the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, which received a wide variety of cases that concerned both politicians of the PiS party and also state officials holding high positions in various ministries, as well as foundations and organizations related to the then government, she said.
– Based on these lists, it could be concluded that many cases ended with quick decisions refusing to initiate proceedings – she added.
As Kwiatkowska said, prosecutors will “check the validity of these decisions”, and if they “find that the proceedings should be continued”, they will “recommend to the national prosecutor that these proceedings be initiated and the circumstances raised in the notifications be verified in normal preparatory proceedings “.
Kwiatkowska on refusals or discontinuance of proceedings
When asked if there were 600 cases known at the moment that “ended with a refusal to initiate an investigation because they were simply politically inconvenient for the then government”, Kwiatkowska said that “they ended with refusals or discontinuation of the proceedings.” – And there is also a visible practice that when it comes to large prosecutor's offices, the vast majority of cases ended in refusals, while in some cases there was a different practice and it involved long-term proceedings. We remember the case of Judge Pilarczyk, which lasted over six years and ultimately ended with the decision to discontinue the proceedings, said prosecutor Kwiatkowska.
– So some people wanted to conduct these proceedings, and some quickly issued a decision not to initiate them. Without prejudging whether these decisions were justified or not at this point, I can promise that they will be carefully examined not only in terms of the correctness of the proceedings, but also in terms of the activity and conduct of individual prosecutors, she added.
When asked if there were prosecutors who specialized in either refusing or discontinuing, she said that “the lists show that some names are repeated.”
Main photo source: TVN24