Polish parliament approves law aimed at punishing judges

Poland’s parliament approved a controversial draft law aimed at disciplining judges who question the government’s judicial reforms.
The new rules would allow judges to be fired if they question the government’s judicial reforms. Poland’s Supreme Court warned that the rules are forcing judges to apply the regulations even if they are “incompatible with higher legal norms”, and that the country might be forced to exit the European Union.
The so-called “muzzle law” triggered widespread protests across the country.  It has also been condemned by the United Nations, Polish legal experts, and opposition lawmakers. The United Nations high Commissioner for human rights warned that the bill “risks further undermining the already heavily challenged independence of the judiciary in Poland”.
Recently, a Polish court has convicted a pro-government official for violating the good name of the country’s judges by calling them “ordinary thieves”. The prosecutor was ordered to publicly apologize to the judges and pay a fine of around $5,000.
After the legislation has passed in the lower house of the parliament, it now is up to President Andrzej Duda, who is expected to sign the bill into law.