The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court has ruled that the reinstatement from retirement and appointment of Dariusz Barski as National Prosecutor in 2022 had a binding legal and constitutional basis and was legally effective.

The resolution was adopted by a panel of three judges of the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court, headed by the President of the Chamber, Zbigniew Kapinski. In addition, the panel included judges Marek Siwek and Igor Zgolinski. The resolution was adopted in response to a question submitted to the SC in March this year by a district court in Gdańsk.

Barski as a National Prosecutor

Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar attempted to remove Attorney Dariusz Barski from his post in January this year. At the time, he handed him a letter stating that the reinstatement of Prosecutor Barski to active service on 16 February 2022 by the previous PG Zbigniew Ziobra was to ‘have no legal effect’. In agreement with Bodnar, Prime Minister Donald Tusk, acting without obtaining the presidential approval required by law, named Prosecutor Jacek Bilewicz as the next PG. Contrary to the law, a public tender for the position of National Prosecutor was later organised - the law on public prosecutors knows no such procedure. In the second half of February, Bodnar and Tusk, once again ignoring President Andrzej Duda and the legal situation of Prosecutor Dariusz Barski, designated Prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk as the new National Prosecutor.

The question of the interpretation of the legislation under which Prosecutor Barski was reinstated from retirement in 2022 - and thus his then legal status as a National Prosecutor - was raised by the Gdansk court when considering a complaint against the decision of the prosecutor’s assessor of June 2023 discontinuing the investigation into the evasion of alimony payments. The problem was that, as this court pointed out, the assessor who decided to discontinue the case had been appointed by Barski in his capacity as state prosecutor, acting under the authority of the prosecutor general.

The Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court held that the reinstatement from retirement and the appointment of Dariusz Barski as National Prosecutor in 2022 had a binding legal and constitutional basis and was legally effective.

Tłum. K.J.