Police deployed during stand-off over control of Poland's top court

What the report says

Riot police were deployed at Poland’s Constitutional Court in Warsaw as a dispute over control of the country’s top court intensified between Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government and judges linked to the former Law and Justice (PiS) administration. The intervention followed a decision by Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek to seek removal of immunity from the court’s president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and vice-president, Bartłomiej Sochański, so criminal charges could be brought against them, according to BBC World News.

The government says it is trying to reverse changes made under PiS and restore judicial independence. Tusk defended the move as part of what he described as efforts to rebuild the rule of law, while court officials rejected the government’s authority to sideline the judges. The Constitutional Court said the two senior justices were still legally appointed and accused those involved of acting unlawfully.

The confrontation has been building for years. European courts previously ruled that some PiS-era appointments to the tribunal were improper, and the Tusk government has relied on those rulings to stop publishing the court’s decisions. However, President Karol Nawrocki, who is backed by PiS, has resisted some of the government’s changes and has refused to swear in several judges elected by parliament this year. The dispute matters because Poland’s Constitutional Court can affect the legality of major laws, and the latest escalation comes ahead of parliamentary elections next year.