A judge suspended the head of Poland's top court. Will he be back by 31 December?

What happened

Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, a judge with the court, ordered its president Bogdan Święczkowski and his deputy to be suspended for a month and announced she was taking charge.

On 30 October a judge suspended the head of Poland’s top court. Judge Anna Korwin-Piotrowska suspended Bogdan Święczkowski, president of the Constitutional Tribunal, and his deputy for a month, and said she was taking charge. The Tribunal decides whether laws fit Poland’s constitution. Święczkowski rejected her authority and called it a coup. No end date for the month has been published.

Korwin-Piotrowska is one of five judges elected by parliament this year whom President Karol Nawrocki refused to swear in. They took their oath in parliament, but Święczkowski did not let them hear cases. She says she can lead the court because she has served longest as a judge overall, though not on this court. Marcin Matczak, a lawyer who criticises the former government, said the legal basis for the suspension was “non-existent”.

Five requests to lift their immunity went to the court. Immunity is the legal protection that stops judges being charged with a crime. Justice minister and prosecutor general Waldemar Żurek wants to charge Święczkowski and his deputy for blocking the new judges. Żurek said the government had nothing to do with the suspension. Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote: “There is no other way.” By law the court’s judges must decide on such a request within a month.

Overnight, riot police stood outside the court. President Nawrocki, an ally of the opposition Law and Justice party, turned his plane back from Senegal, pushed into the building and told the new judges: “You are not judges”. He called urgent talks with the parties in parliament. On 31 October the court’s website carried orders signed by Korwin-Piotrowska as the judge standing in for its president.

All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d’etat.

Constitutional Tribunal social media post, quoted by BBC News, 31 October 2026

Sources: Politico Europe (2), Al Jazeera, The Guardian, BBC, Sejm, Constitutional Tribunal

The Pattern

We looked for cases where a president, government, parliament or prosecutor removed or suspended the head of a top court or prosecution service, and that head refused to accept it. We found eight such removals since 2006, in Poland, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Moldova. Courts and prosecution services each make up four.

The Read

One of the eight chiefs was back within 62 days. In the Czech Republic in 2006 the Constitutional Court paused the president’s decision after 10 days. In Poland the court itself is now the prize, and on 31 October its website was run by the judge who did the suspending. The one earlier suspension with a time limit, in Ukraine, was extended when it ran out. In Poland the month can still end with no new order.

There are reasons for doubt. In none of the eight did a fellow judge of the same court do the removing. Only once did a president take the side of the chief: in Romania in 2018 the president first refused to fire Laura Codruța Kövesi and signed only after a court ruling, and she did not return. Two of the eight, in Hungary and Romania, left on the day and went to the European human rights court months later. The court also speaks with two voices: its social media said both judges are still legally in office, while its website carries orders from Korwin-Piotrowska.

Sources: Czech Constitutional Court, Constitutional Tribunal (2), Radio Svoboda, Politico Europe, RFE/RL, European Court of Human Rights, BBC