The partial audit reviewed 200 out of 600 cases from 2016 to 2023 and identified serious concerns in 112 cases, including politically sensitive investigations involving independent judges, prosecutors and opposition supporters. Only 37 cases were deemed free of serious issues, the report said.  

“The findings validate numerous stated concerns, resulting in the conclusion that the Prosecutor’s Office from 2016 to 2023 failed to adequately perform its responsibilities,” the report said, calling for disciplinary and criminal accountability.  

Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, who also serves as prosecutor general, said on social media that the audit reveals “a shocking picture” of misconduct under former officials Zbigniew Ziobro and Bogdan Święczkowski. He pledged to initiate proceedings against those responsible.  

Ziobro, PiS’s former justice minister, dismissed the findings as politically motivated. “Bodnar has fabricated 200 political cases, but tomorrow he himself will stand before the court,” he said, accusing the current government of judicial overreach.  

The PiS government’s judicial reforms, launched after its 2015 election victory, sparked widespread protests and EU legal action that withheld billions in funding over the rule-of-law violations.  

Reforms included merging the roles of justice minister and prosecutor general and removing prosecutors seen as unsupportive of PiS policies.