This is extremely important because it will be a bridgehead from which they may want to take back power – said Professor Wojciech Sadurski, a constitutional expert, in “Fakty po Faktach”, commenting on the transfer of control over the surveillance carried out by the secret services to the national prosecutor.
Representatives of KO, Third Way and the Left write in the coalition agreement about “restoration legal order”. They announce, among other things, an “independent and apolitical” prosecutor’s office and ensuring the functioning of the constitutional judiciary. “We will make every effort to restore the constitutional and apolitical shape of the National Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court,” we read in the document.
Read more: The coalition’s plans for the justice system. We are talking about “restoring legal order”
In mid-December, changes regarding control over surveillance conducted by special services will come into force. The powers previously vested in the prosecutor general are to be taken over by the national prosecutor, whose dismissal requires the consent of the president.
Read more: Changes in control over surveillance. “Rzeczpospolita”: this may be the reason why PiS is delaying its departure
Sadurski: we are dealing with concreting positions and strengthening their competences
The guest of “Fakty po Faktach” was Professor Wojciech Sadurski, constitutionalist, University of Sydney, University of Warsaw. He stated that after the neo-National Council of the Judiciary and the Constitutional Tribunal, the parliamentary majority should focus on repairing the prosecutor’s office. – Must be the prosecutor’s office. This is absolutely necessary. Because without an independent, honest and apolitical prosecutor’s office, there is absolutely no way to bring all these culprits to justice – he said.
The constitutionalist also referred to the new competences of the national prosecutor. – We have a big problem here. Because as part of this farce of extending the mandate Mateusz Morawiecki Thanks to Andrzej Duda, we are dealing with concreting positions and strengthening their competences – he said.
Wojciech Sadurski in “Fakty po Faktach” TVN24
– Very dangerous ones too. Recently, control over the secret services has been transferred to the competence of the national prosecutor, who has a concrete deadline (for appeals – editor’s note), because he can be dismissed only with the president’s consent, he continued. – This is extremely important because it will be a bridgehead from which they may want to take back power – said Sadurski.
Changes in the prosecutor’s office just before the change of government
In August, the Sejm adopted an amendment to the Code of Civil Procedure, the Code of Criminal Procedure, provisions on the court system, and the Law on the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
One of the extensive parts of the amendment refers to the competences of the Prosecutor General and the National Prosecutor. According to it, the scope of the latter’s powers is to be increased, while the scope of the powers of the Prosecutor General is to be narrowed. This includes: on issues of directly issuing orders to subordinate prosecutors, as well as appointing and dismissing heads of prosecutor’s offices.
“The Prosecutor General issues orders to subordinate prosecutors through the National Prosecutor. In particularly justified cases, due to the goodness of the proceedings or the proper functioning of the prosecutor’s office, the National Prosecutor may request that the order addressed to him be changed or revoked,” the amendment states.
The president’s consent is required to dismiss the national prosecutor. These solutions were criticized by the opposition, assessing them as another stage of “concreting” the prosecutor’s office.
On Friday, November 10, i.e. on the last working day before the resignation of Mateusz Morawiecki’s government, regulations were published based on the amendment regarding “the method of documenting operational control in the State Protection Service, the National Tax Administration, the Police and the Border Guard”.
The changes contained therein assume that the powers to control surveillance conducted by the special services come from the Prosecutor General, i.e. currently Zbigniew Ziobrowill be taken over by the first deputy prosecutor general – national prosecutor.
Main photo source: PAP/Radek Pietruszka