Mikolaj Pietrzak, Dean of the Warsaw Bar, exposes threats to fair trial rights in Poland

Mikolaj Rietrzak interviewed on the constitutional violations in the Poland parliament and threats to fair trials.

In March 2018, in the case of the Minister for Justice and Equality and Artur Celmer the Irish High Court refused to surrender a suspected drug trafficker arrested following a Polish EAW, due to concerns about the integrity of the Polish judicial system.

In the Irish High Court Judgment, Poland’s judicial reforms, progressively introduced by the government since 2015 and aimed at ensuring effective control over the judiciary through its Constitutional and Supreme Courts, were described as “a shocking indictment of the status of the rule of law in a European country in the second decade of the 21st century.”

To explain more about the attacks on judicial independence in Poland and their impact on the right to a fair trial in the country we have created a video of the Dean of the Warsaw Bar and head of our network in Poland, Mikolaj Pietrzak, discussing these issues.