End of the “coup” investigation. The prosecutor's office attacks the Constitutional Tribunal's arguments
The investigation into the so-called coup d'état in the context of actions aimed at bringing the former chairman of the National Broadcasting Council, Maciej Świrski, before the State Tribunal – informed the Warsaw district prosecutor's office. It was found that these actions did not constitute a crime, it was emphasized.
“On April 13, 2026, the prosecutor of the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, conducting the proceedings based on Bogdan Święczkowski's notification regarding the so-called 'coup d'état, partially discontinued the proceedings in the scope of the proceedings to bring the former Chairman of the National Broadcasting Council to constitutional liability,” we read in a statement from the spokesman of the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office, Prosecutor Piotr Antoni Skiba.
As noted, “after conducting an in-depth analysis of the factual and legal situation, the prosecutor found no signs of any crime in relation to the actions taken by the deputies aimed at bringing the former chairman of the National Broadcasting Council before the State Tribunal.”
Proc. Skiba said that according to the prosecutor, who discontinued this part of the case, there were no signs of any crime in the deputies' actions. In this assessment, the prosecutor added – both the actions of the deputies who signed the initial motion to bring Świrski before the Court of Justice, as well as the actions taken by the Sejm committee and the Speaker of the Sejm, were legal.
As we read, the assessment of the legality of these actions was not undermined either by the content of the protective order or the judgment issued by the Constitutional Tribunal. Proc. Skiba reported that, in the opinion of the prosecutor conducting the proceedings, by issuing the protective order, the Constitutional Tribunal had violated the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure. Therefore – as we read – state authorities had the right to ignore them. However, the Constitutional Tribunal's judgment in this case – as Skiba pointed out – did not enter into force because it was not published and was not published at the time the decision was taken by the Sejm.
Investigation into the so-called The coup was initiated in early 2025 by the Deputy Prosecutor General, Prosecutor Michał Ostrowski, following a notification submitted by the President of the Constitutional Tribunal, Bogdan Święczkowski. In Święczkowski's opinion, among others: the Prime Minister, the Speakers of the Sejm and the Senate, ministers and the head of the RCL have been operating “in an organized criminal group” since December 13, 2023, with the aim of “changing the constitutional system of the Republic of Poland and acting in order to achieve or cease the activities of the Constitutional Tribunal and other constitutional bodies, including the National Council of the Judiciary and the Supreme Court.” At the end of February last year the proceedings were taken over by the Warsaw District Prosecutor's Office. The National Broadcasting Council was one of several threads in this proceeding.
The initial motion to bring Świrski before the Tribunal of State was submitted to the Sejm by a group of 185 MPs in May 2024. The applicants accused the head of the National Broadcasting Council of violations in three different segments: blocking approximately PLN 300 million from license fees for public radio and television, blocking licenses for private broadcasters (TVN, TVN24, Radio TOK FM, Radio ZET), as well as not carrying out statistical research regarding viewership of television stations in Poland.
PiS MPs were against bringing the head of the National Broadcasting Council before the Court of Justice. They challenged the provisions that make this possible to the Constitutional Tribunal. In their motion, the MPs asked the Constitutional Tribunal, among others: also for the Tribunal to issue an injunction obliging all Sejm bodies related to the case – including the Speaker of the Sejm, deputy speakers and the Sejm committee – to refrain from any actions related to bringing Świrski before the Constitutional Tribunal until the Constitutional Tribunal resolves the matter of the challenged provisions.
Such security was issued by the Constitutional Tribunal in October 2024. In turn, in mid-July 2025, the Tribunal ruled that two provisions regulating the holding of a member of the National Broadcasting Council accountable to the Constitutional Tribunal are unconstitutional. From March 2024, the Constitutional Tribunal's judgments are not published in the Journal of Laws.
Therefore, even though the Constitutional Tribunal found the provisions allowing the prosecution of a member of the National Broadcasting Council to be unconstitutional, a few days later – at the end of July 2025 – the Sejm voted in favor of bringing Świrski before the Constitutional Tribunal, and the Marshal of the Sejm forwarded a resolution on this matter together with the necessary documents to the State Tribunal.
Members of the National Broadcasting Council may be brought before the Court of Justice for violating the constitution or law in connection with the position they hold or within the scope of their office. The resolution on bringing a person to justice before the Court of Justice is passed by the Sejm by an absolute majority of votes in the presence of at least half (230) of the statutory number of Deputies. The resolution on bringing the person to justice to the Court of Justice shall result in the suspension of the person concerned from his/her duties.
Świrski did not recognize the decision of the Sejm, but on July 28, 2025, the members of the Council decided to dismiss him from his position as chairman of the National Broadcasting Council. Agnieszka Glapiak is the new chairman.
In mid-February last year Prosecutor Ostrowski was suspended in connection with the investigation into the “coup d'état”. As the National Prosecutor's Office reported at the time, he initiated the investigation without prior registration in the prosecutor's office's registration system. It was also pointed out that the deputy PG, among others, he accepted a letter from the president of the Constitutional Tribunal, with whom he “remains in close relations” and whose subordinate he was in the years 2016-2022, and issued a decision to initiate an investigation and performed further procedural steps “being aware that the notification has a political dimension”, that “there are no grounds for taking urgent action” and that “there are grounds for excluding him from the investigation”.
The suspension was extended at the request of the disciplinary spokesman appointed to investigate the actions of the deputy PG. Last time they were extended until April 10 this year. Last Tuesday, the Disciplinary Court of the Prosecutor General decided that the suspension would not be extended again.
Other threads of the investigation into the so-called coup d'etat concern, among others, National Council of the Judiciary and the resolution of the Sejm of December 2023, which indicated that three resolutions of the Sejm of 2018, 2021 and 2022 on the election of judges – members of the National Council of the Judiciary were adopted in gross violation of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland. The proceedings also refer to the Supreme Court and include, for example, the issue of “calling for the removal of so-called neo-judges from the Supreme Court.” (PAP)
ef/ mja/ par/
