MAIN POINTs
1
On October 16, 2026, prosecutor Andrzej Piaseczny, accompanied by police, entered the headquarters of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, demanding the handover of documents and CCTV recordings. The President of the Tribunal handed them over voluntarily so as not to escalate the situation, but deemed the incursion a potential criminal offense.
2
The prosecution service’s actions raise serious doubts in light of the principle of the independence of courts and tribunals, and they may also be aimed at forcing the President of the Tribunal to admit to adjudication persons who have not taken the oath before the President of the Republic.
3
The incursion came two days after Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared that, with regard to the Tribunal, the government would not retreat a single step – further escalation can therefore be feared.
Two days ago, we reported that Maciej Berek, a former minister in Donald Tusk’s government, recited the oath of a judge of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal in the office of the Speaker of the Sejm, Poland’s lower house of parliament – bypassing the President of the Republic, before whom, under Polish law, the oath must be taken. When Berek then tried to enter the judges’ section of the Tribunal’s building, its President, Bogdan Święczkowski, barred his way pending a reply from the President of the Republic as to whether he recognizes this oath. President Karol Nawrocki declared the very same day that Berek is not a judge of the Constitutional Tribunal.
Now the government has gone a step further: on October 16, 2026, the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) announced in a statement yet another incursion into its headquarters:
Prosecutor Andrzej Piaseczny, together with Police officers, has arrived at the headquarters of the Constitutional Tribunal and is attempting to search the headquarters of an independent organ of judicial power.
(…)
Source of cover photo: Wikipedia
