Judge Tomasz Szmydt, who was to ask for asylum in Belarus, worked, among others, in the so-called neo-KRS, and was also one of the heroes of the “hater scandal”. “He dreamed of being independent in what he did,” we read in the issue of the quarterly “National Council of the Judiciary” from over a decade ago. Who is Judge Tomasz Szmydt and what else do we know about him?
On Monday, the BiełTA press agency published a report from a press conference in which Tomasz Szmydt announced that he had asked the Belarusian authorities for asylum. “Szmydt is a judge of the 2nd department of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, and previously held various positions in the judicial system and judicial authorities of Poland and was the head of the legal department of the National Council of Judges,” BiełTA reported.
The case was commented by, among others: Deputy Prime Minister, head of the Ministry of National Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz. – If someone chooses Belarus, it means that they have been acting in Poland for years in some interest, on whose behalf? – noted Kosiniak-Kamysz when asked by journalists about this matter. He added that going to Belarus makes the previous activities of such a person “give a lot to think about.” – The matter requires immediate clarification – he emphasized.
What else do we know about judge Tomasz Szmydt?
Who is Judge Tomasz Szmydt
“I have worked as a judge throughout my professional life, initially as a judge of the District Court in Ciechanów, then of the District Court in Płock. I was nominated for the position of judge of the Provincial Administrative Court by President Bronisław Komorowski on October 19, 2012” – this is a fragment of the letter, the content of which Szmydt posted on the X platform on Monday.
The declaration of assets, signed in April 2023 and published on the website of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw, shows that Szmydt was born in April 1970 in Białystok. In November 2001, he received from President Aleksander Kwaśniewski an act of appointment to serve as a judge in Ciechanów – we read in a statement on the official website of the President of the Republic of Poland.
Tomasz SzmydtRafał Guz/PAP
In 2018, Szmydt became director of the legal department in the office of the new National Council of the Judiciary. We learn more about the judge from the website of the National Council of the Judiciary, specifically from the first issue of the quarterly “National Council of the Judiciary” from 2013. “Tomasz Szmydt dreamed of a job that he could do independently. He dreamed of being independent in what he did, being aware of full responsibility for his actions. This profession, he claims, best suits his character. Hence, among other things, he chose the profession of a judge ” – we read in Szmydt's profile, titled “I do what I like”.
Tomasz Szmydt – education
The rest of the profile shows that Szmydt graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Warsaw in Białystok in 1996, and two years later he passed the judicial examination. In 1999, he started working as an assessor at the District Court in Ciechanów. He started working as a judge at the District Court in Płock in 2006, while he had already been ruling as a judge in Ciechanów for five years. Moreover, the profile states that “whenever he has time, he rides horses and swims. In winter, he likes to go skiing with his family. He is married and has two daughters.”
Tomasz SzmydtReuters
“Working in common courts was interesting, but it was only in an administrative court that I could actually do what I like. I feel good as an administrative court judge and, I think, I am predestined to do it,” said Szmydt, quoted in the quarterly “National Council of the Judiciary” in 2013.
Judge Tomasz Szmydt and the “haters scandal”
Judge Szmydt was one of the heroes of the so-called hate scandal in the Ministry of Justice, then headed by Zbigniew Ziobro. This case was first described by Onet journalists in August 2019. They then reported that a group centered around former Deputy Minister of Justice Łukasz Piebiak was operating on the WhatsApp messenger closed group called “Caste”which exchanged ideas on how to denigrate judges who oppose changes introduced by PiS in the courts.
In 2022, in the reportage “The caste of the steadfast“, Szmydt talked about the mechanism of collecting hooks on judges who were in trouble with the PiS government. As he then argued in conversations with the media, as a result of his involvement in slandering judges, “he lost the most – his family and his professional position.”
In the same year in a conversation with the reporter of “Black and white” Marta Gordziewicz Arkadiusz Cichocki, judge of the District Court in Gliwice and former president of this court appointed by the Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Zbigniew Ziobro, shed new light on the “hater scandal”.
Who is Little Emi
Emilia Szmydt, called Little Emi, the former wife of Tomasz Szmydt, was one of the heroines of the “hater scandal”. The woman, who worked closely with Piebiak, received confidential data from her principals, as well as lies and insinuations, which she then posted on social media. Its targets were judges unfavorable to changes in the judiciary. In September 2022, in the report “Superwizjer” TVN “Confession of Little Emi. Behind the scenes of the hater scandal”, Emilia Szmydt decided to talk on camera about her role in the scandal for the first time.
Main photo source: Rafał Guz/PAP