The Internal Affairs Department of the National Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation into the “submission of procedural documents dated November 30, 2023 to several district courts in the country,” spokesman Przemysław Nowak said in response to the publication of Wirtualna Polska. The portal wrote that the applications submitted to the courts by prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek, intended to block PiS’s actions regarding public media, were to be created outside the prosecutor’s office.
On Thursday, Wirtualna Polska published an article which shows that there were irregularities when prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek submitted applications to the courts to block PiS activities regarding public media. According to the author of the article, the applications could have been prepared outside the prosecutor’s office.
Statement of the National Prosecutor’s Office
The spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, commented on the “WP” reports on Thursday in a statement, saying that the Internal Affairs Department of the National Prosecutor’s Office is conducting an investigation into this matter. It concerns “the submission to several district courts in the country of procedural documents dated November 30, 2023, marked, among others, as ‘the prosecutor’s request to secure the claim before initiating proceedings in the case’,” he said.
According to Nowak, the investigation also examines the facts and circumstances raised in the WP article. “The purpose of the investigation is to make true factual findings and an objective criminal law assessment of all acts that are the subject of the proceedings,” the prosecutor added.
As the spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General, Anna Adamiak, explained to PAP, the investigation referred to in the announcement was initiated on December 14, 2023, in connection with the submission of a notification by the then regional prosecutor in Warsaw, Jakub Romelczyk. – The investigation concerns the abuse of powers by prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek. The subject of the proceedings are the circumstances described by WP today, Adamiak said.
However, the spokeswoman emphasized that the notification of the then regional prosecutor concerned “unauthorized submission of applications to district courts by an unauthorized person.” – In the opinion of prosecutor Romelczyk, prosecutor Wrzosek could not submit such applications – she added.
Adamiak noted that some of the circumstances presented in the WP article were not known at the time Romelczyk submitted the notification. – During the proceedings, the circumstance that was indicated today must be clarified, because it is undoubtedly related to the case – she said.
When asked whether prosecutor Wrzosek had already been questioned in this case, Adamiak denied it. – Prosecutor Wrzosek has not been questioned yet. At this moment, I am unable to provide a date. Activities are ongoing, and so far employees of the secretariats of the district and district prosecutor’s offices have been questioned, she said.
Adamiak confirmed that Wrzosek’s immunity has not been waived, therefore she continues to perform her prosecutorial duties. – If the prosecutor conducting the proceedings comes to the conclusion that the collected evidence justifies charging a person with a crime, he or she must apply to the disciplinary court to lift the immunity – she explained.
Prosecutor Ewa WrzosekAlbert Zawada/PAP
Korneluk: there will be no reduced tariff in this case
National prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk said in “Tak jest” on TVN24 that after submitting the notification in December last year, “prosecutors of the Internal Affairs Office of the National Prosecutor’s Office immediately began to assess this case.”
– For my part, I can assure you, because the Internal Affairs Office reports directly to me as the national prosecutor, that there will be no concessions in this case. If a crime has been committed, it will first be made public and legal consequences will be drawn, he said.
Kaleta: the PiS club submits a report to the prosecutor’s office in the Wrzosek case
Sovereign Poland MP Sebastian Kaleta (PiS club) announced during Thursday’s press conference in the Sejm that a notification had been submitted to the prosecutor’s office. – As the Parliamentary Club of Law and Justice, we have today prepared a notification to the Prosecutor’s Office about the possibility of committing a crime by both prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek and associates of the Clifford Chance Law Firm, in order to clarify all doubts raised in the Wirtualna Polska publication – said Kaleta.
Kaleta also asked during the conference whether the head of the Ministry of Justice, Adam Bodnar, was “covering up for Ewa Wrzosek and her actions.”
The politician assessed that the wp.pl publication shows that several crimes may have been committed, including the abuse of powers by a public official in order to obtain financial benefits.
WP on the actions of prosecutor Wrzosek
The whole matter, as WP writes, begins on November 27, 2023, when “the National Media Council, whose majority is composed of people supporting Law and Justice, at the request of the Minister of Culture Piotr Gliński, adopts a resolution on amending the statutes of public radio and television broadcasting units and Polish Press Agency. As noted, the plan to prevent the new authorities from making changes to the management boards of public media companies required the registry courts to enter changes in the statutes of a number of companies, including regional radio stations.
Consequently, on November 30, 2023, the Warsaw-Mokotów District Prosecutor’s Office receives a letter from MP Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz (current Minister of Culture), who requests that actions be taken to secure claims for the invalidation/revocation of resolutions regarding public media. As WP pointed out, prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek works in this branch of the prosecutor’s office and, as she later emphasized, she learned about the case on the same day.
Wrzosek, as disclosed by WP, first conducts a verification procedure and, recognizing that it is urgently necessary to protect the rule of law, citizens’ rights and social interest, sends a number of prosecutor’s requests for security to the courts. In total, as WP notes, there are about 40 applications. According to the journalists, Wrzosek acted without the consent of the head of the Mokotów prosecutor’s office, because the case was not assigned to her. The effects of the applications sent by Wrzosek are, as WP notes, very different.
The media became interested in the case. “Gazeta Wyborcza” publishes a text in which it describes “how the well-known prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek blocked the entry to change the statute of Radio Kielce.” On the other hand, wPolityce.pl journalists ask whether Ewa Wrzosek is a prosecutor “by e-mail” and whether Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz dictated to her what to do.
In an interview with “GW”, Wrzosek states that she received Sienkiewicz’s letter, but this does not mean that she did anything under the influence of the politician, or that she submitted the applications prepared by him.
WP journalists were interested in the pace of work of Wrzosek, who, as she claims, read Sienkiewicz’s letter on November 30 and on the same day wrote and submitted a number of applications to the courts.
According to the findings of WP journalists who examined some of Wrzosek’s applications, they were sent from a post office located over 6 km from the Mokotów prosecutor’s office. “So, on November 30, 2023, prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek learned about the case from the letter of MP Bartłomiej Sienkiewicz, wrote a several-page application to one court, sent it to the post office at 12:44, and then wrote another application to send it electronically at 17/01. We are talking about two applications. Ewa Wrzosek declares that she has submitted a total of approximately 40 applications,” notes WP.
However, as we read, this is not the end of doubts in this matter. The WP also obtained press materials attached to the applications. “In the footnotes, Wrzosek indicates the date of access to the text. Each time he states: November 28, 2023.” – marked. “If the applications were prepared on November 30, 2023, as Wrzosek claims, then this date should be included in them – the prosecutor, while working on the application, would visit the websites quoted in the letter on November 30, 2023, and not on November 28,” he notes HR.
Journalists also point out the numerous similarities in the format of the applications to the letters created by the Clifford Chance law firm, where Sylwia Gregorczyk-Abram, one of the founders of Free Courts and Wrzosek’s private friend, works.
As indicated by WP, the headquarters of the Clifford Chance law firm is located in Warsaw at ul. Lviv. More precisely – on the corner of Lwowska and Koszykowa. “The post office from which Ewa Wrzosek sent the application to the court is located less than 70 meters from the office. According to Google Maps, we can get from the office to the post office (or vice versa) in a minute,” the authors of the text note.
WP adds that the Clifford Chance law firm has been providing services to Telewizja Polska SA (in liquidation), Polskie Radio SA (in liquidation) and Polska Agencja Prasowa SA (in liquidation) since December 2023.
Comment by Wrzosek
Wirtualna Polska wrote that in response to her questions, prosecutor Wrzosek said that I had consulted the draft applications with other prosecutors – who have more experience in the field of company and economic law. She indicated that “the applications were printed outside the headquarters of the Warsaw-Mokotów District Prosecutor’s Office, as the prosecutor does not perform his official duties only at the headquarters of the unit where he is employed.”
“The applications for security were sent at a post office, outside the adopted official correspondence circulation system, because their sending at the headquarters of the Mokotów prosecutor’s office would be prevented by Monika Laskowska, the District Prosecutor for Warsaw Mokotów. They were placed on the court portal after logging in using the business e-mail address. On this Return court correspondence was also sent to this address,” wrote prosecutor Wrzosek.
For more detailed issues, she referred to the press spokesman of the National Prosecutor’s Office or the press spokesman of the Prosecutor General, who, as she indicated, “finally took over the case.”
As the portal wrote, it also asked Wrzosek whether the printing or scanning of the application/applications took place at the Clifford Chance Janicka, Krużewski, Namotywkiewicz i Wspólnicy sp.k. law firm, but the prosecutor was not to answer.
On Thursday morning, she published an entry on the X platform in which she wrote: “The prosecutor may request the initiation of proceedings in any case, take part in any proceedings if it is required to protect the rule of law, citizens’ rights or social interest. The court decides. This is for a comment.”
“And as a reminder – the prosecutor general on November 30, 2023 was Ziobro’s party colleague – a certain Warchoł. Who remembers their ideas on the rule of law and protection of the social interest?” – she added.
PAP, Wirtualna Polska, tvn24.pl
Source of the main photo: Albert Zawada/PAP