Open letter of the Lex Super Omnia Association of Prosecutors to the National Prosecutor on the harassment of Prosecutor Mariusz Krasoń

Warsaw, 6 July 2019 

Mr. National Prosecutor 

The Lex Super Omnia Association of Prosecutors recently sent an open letter to the Polish Ombudsman. This time we are approaching you in the same form with regard to our colleague, Prosecutor Mariusz Krasoń from the District Prosecution Office in Kraków. He was transferred to a different department and then suddenly seconded to the Wrocław district prosecution office. 

You know better than us that the whole of your career has been based on a personal friendship with Zbigniew Ziobro. When assuming the post of National Prosecutor, you created an executive system among your friends, who you reward generously.

The discretionary additional gratifications and freedom in promoting prosecutors have enabled you to reduce the morale of a part of the environment and win the loyalty of the recipients of your gifts. Even so, we were surprised as to how quickly you reached out for a housing allowance to which you were not entitled and took other prosecutors from the National Prosecution Office with you. 

You have accustomed us to decisions being made on the borderline of legality, as well decisions glaringly overstepping that borderline, which is evidenced by the wording of numerous letters and decisions made on behalf of the Prosecutor General. 

You turned disciplinary proceedings and personnel decisions into a tool of your personal vengeance. However, in the interest of a trusted prosecutor, you managed to file a cassation motion in his favour and disregard the judgment on the application of a disciplinary penalty. We read your letter to the Chairperson of the National Council of the Judiciary regarding Jarosław Duś, who had received a disciplinary penalty and who was applying for the post of judge in the Disciplinary Chamber of the Supreme Court, with disbelief. In your letter, you belittled the judgement of the Supreme Court and demanded that this candidate be presented to the President, which took place.

Your conduct is in conflict with the ideals expressed by the Independent Association of Prosecutors, Ad Vocem, of which you are a member, just as many prosecutors holding high posts in the prosecution service. The independence written into the name of this organization has become an empty phrase in the prosecution service. The prosecution service of the ‘good change’ has become a tool in the hands of the political parties that are currently in power. The attention of selected prosecutors has been focused on handling proceedings against political opponents or ordinary citizens participating in various forms of social protest in defence of the rule of law in Poland.

You brought about the complete disappearance of the significance of the bodies of the association of prosecutors. Despite glaring examples and our Association’s initiatives, the Council of Prosecutors under the Prosecutor General has not troubled itself to consider the problems of a breach of the independence of the prosecutors. Unfeeling decisions to post prosecutors away from their place of residence without their consent, to the lowest units,have not been the subject of an open debate, because you refuse to provide information on the scale of this phenomenon. 

You have been setting new standards in the corporate relations within the prosecution service together with the Prosecutor General, Zbigniew Ziobro, since March 2016. Long postings of prosecutors without taking into account their personal situation and actual staffing needs are used as a method of illegally harassing and intimidating other prosecutors. This is precisely the method you have used with respect to Mariusz Krasoń, who voted in favour of the resolution stigmatizing the breach of the independence of prosecutors in May of this year, together with the members of the association of prosecutors of the Kraków region.

The Lex Super Omnia Association of Prosecutors will not allow the case of prosecutor Mariusz Krasoń to pass by silently. We demand that you immediately cancel the decision you made, as it may incite negative consequences not only for Mariusz Krasoń, but also for his family. This is because posting our colleague is a further example of the nature of the harassment and a substitute of a disciplinary penalty for an independent stance. Once again, it applies to a prosecutor in a difficult situation in life, with an impeccable track record, constituting an example for others. 

The Lex Super Omnia Association of Prosecutors will not allow for a repetition of the tragedy experienced by the family of the prosecutor of the Szczecin branch of the Institute of National Remembrance. The prosecutor was dismissed from his post and was then posted from Szczecin to Rzeszów. He died suddenly in Rzeszów, a long way from his family, when he learned about the posting being extended for a long time.

In writing these difficult, but necessary words, we would like to remind you that we swore an oath to faithfully serve the Republic of Poland and to protect the law. We never promised unquestionable obedience to successive superiors. We demand that we and other prosecutors be allowed to fulfil our mission in accordance with the law.  We assure you that we shall be faithful to the oath we have sworn. We shall not renounce our ideals. We shall not be intimidated by harassment. We shall support Mariusz Krasoń and all independent prosecutors. 

We are not writing customary words of respect. We feel very bitter. We have stopped believing that you care about the respect of prosecutors. We shall wait patiently for superiors of undisputed authority, whom we shall respect as people and lawyers. 

LEX Super Omnia Association of Prosecutors