Prosecutor Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, president of the Association of Prosecutors “Lex Super Omnia”, defeats the prosecutor’s office in the matter of her criminal delegation

The OKO.press portal was the first to write about the case.

According to the portal, the verdict is “important for all prosecutors and the entire justice system” because “for the first time, the court legally stated that criminal delegations of prosecutors are discriminatory and unequal in treatment in connection with their defense of the rule of law.” It was also noted that the court “also gave prosecutors protection against such decisions of their superiors.” This concerns the case of the “criminal delegation”, to which prosecutor Kwiatkowska was sent at the beginning of 2021 by the then national prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski. Then, as the portal reminds, seven prosecutors from Lex Super Omnia were sent “overnight” to work in district prosecutor’s offices in Poland, sometimes even several hundred kilometers away from the prosecutors’ homes.

It was added that Monday’s verdict was “thanks to the stubborn president of the Lex Super Omnia association of independent prosecutors.” The prosecutor’s office may file a cassation appeal against this decision to the Supreme Court.

The Lex Super Omnia Association describes the activities of the prosecutor’s office in recent years. In the past, independent prosecutors from this association prepared a report on the state of the prosecutor’s office under their leadership Zbigniew Ziobro. They wrote, among other things, about unclear promotions and politicization, including proceedings.

Prosecutor Kwiatkowska commented on Monday’s court decision in an interview with Onet.

“It was a great joy to hear this court decision. The most important thing for me is that the court directly admitted that prosecutors have full opportunity to assert their rights in court, especially before the labor court,” she said in an interview with the portal.

“This verdict, the first for these penal deportations, is important not only for me, but for the entire community. It opens the way for us to initiate court proceedings in the event of violations of the principles of the Labor Code by our superiors,” added the head of the prosecutors’ association.

She added that “it could be, like in our country, overnight exile,” but it could also be “mobbing or other reasons.” “The basis is that, according to the court, we, as prosecutors, have the right to assert our rights. And the authorities tried to deny us this,” said prosecutor Kwiatkowska.

In January 2021, prosecutor Kwiatkowska was delegated from Warsaw to Golub-Dobrzyń in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, approximately 180 kilometers from the capital. Decision about transfer of several prosecutors – members of the association – national prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski took up work in other units. There was no appeal against it.

Kwiatkowska filed a lawsuit against the National Prosecutor’s Office and the Warsaw-Praga District Prosecutor’s Office. She demanded compensation in the amount of PLN 76,000. “GW” wrote that the District Court in Warsaw found that the delegation was a manifestation of discrimination for activities in Lex Super Omnia. As OKO.press reported at the time, the court awarded Kwiatkowska compensation – PLN 16.8 thousand, which was to be paid by her employer, the Warsaw-Praga District Prosecutor’s Office.

However, the prosecutor’s office appealed against this verdict. Monday’s ruling is the upholding of that ruling.

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And in March 2022 disciplinary charges were brought against prosecutor Kwiatkowska. As the Rzeszów disciplinary spokesman for the Prosecutor General explained at the time, she violated the dignity of the prosecutor’s office with her media statements,

“GW” informed then that these included statements made to this daily and TVN24. As “Wyborcza” wrote, the interview from January 2021, according to the spokesman, exceeded the limits of freedom of expression and justified criticism.

“He did not like the fact that the president of the LSO revealed without authorization and allegedly contrary to the regulations that she had been delegated to the District Prosecutor’s Office in Golub-Dobrzyń for six months by the national prosecutor Bogdan Święczkowski and informed about the poor staffing situation of the unit,” we read.