Poland's decade-long fight over control of its top court erupts into 'coup' claims as the chief judge is suspended
President Karol Nawrocki inside the Constitutional Tribunal in the early hours of Saturday, confronting Anna Korwin-Piotrowska, the government-backed judge who declared herself head of the court, and the other newly appointed judges, telling them they 'are not judges'. He had turned his plane around mid-flight to Senegal to return to Warsaw.President Karol Nawrocki pushes through the police cordon outside the Constitutional Tribunal shortly before 1am. Government-appointed judges had suspended the court's president, Bogdan Święczkowski, a move the tribunal itself called 'the crime of a coup d'état'.A locksmith cuts through the gate chains of Poland's Constitutional Tribunal as Bogdan Święczkowski, the suspended court president and former PiS deputy justice minister, attempted to enter the building with opposition…President Karol Nawrocki enters the Constitutional Tribunal building in Warsaw late on Friday night after a stand-off with police. The suspended court president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, face being stripped of immunity so criminal charges can be brought.Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister, whose government's appointees on the Constitutional Tribunal suspended its president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and moved to strip him and his deputy of immunity, the move the tribunal has called 'the crime of a coup d'état'.President Karol Nawrocki (second left) inside the Constitutional Tribunal with Zbigniew Kapiński, First President of the Supreme Court (far left), Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the President's Office (centre), Sławomir Cenckiewicz, head of the National Security Bureau (second right), and Bartłomiej Sochański, the tribunal's vice-president (far right), one of the two officials suspended and facing the loss of immunity.
Poland's constitutional crisis exploded into open confrontation on Friday night after government-appointed judges suspended Constitutional Tribunal president Bogdan Święczkowski — a PiS ally who had served as that party's deputy justice minister — and moved to strip him and his deputy Bartłomiej Sochański of immunity so criminal charges can be brought against them.
PiS-backed president Karol Nawrocki turned his plane around mid-flight to Senegal, forcing his way through a police cordon to enter the building at 1am.
The tribunal itself posted on social media: 'All persons participating in these actions are committing the crime of a coup d'état.'
Police detained three protesters after crowds breached the fence and threw objects at officers; Nawrocki was still inside the building at 4am calling for security forces to leave.
