Constitutional Tribunal head interviewed over leak

The investigation into the leak was announced by Michał Dziekański, a spokesman for the district prosecutor in Warsaw.

He said that several people, including Rzepliński himself, had filed a complaint over the leak of the verdict to the media.

The investigation is being conducted to check whether public officials within the Constitutional Tribunal disclosed the content of the verdict to third parties.

Warsaw prosecutors said in mid-March that they had started probing how a draft ruling by Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal was leaked ahead of its formal announcement.

The tribunal ruled that a series of controversial changes to the way it functions – introduced by the governing Law and Justice (PiS) party – were unconstitutional.

Before the verdict was announced, the wpolityce.pl news website published what it said was a draft of the court’s decision and suggested that the Constitutional Tribunal had consulted with MPs from the opposition Civic Platform before making its ruling.

Civic Platform deputy chief Borys Budka has said neither he nor other PO MPs had access to the Constitutional Tribunal’s ruling before it was publicly announced. (rg/pk)