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The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights has addressed the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data on the issue of entering personal data in case lists displayed in courts. The HFHR requests the IGPPD to consider bringing this problem to the attention of the Minister of Justice.

The Open Society Justice Initiative has submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of Sergei Magnitsky’s mother. Mr Magnitsky was a Russian attorney who died in prison arrested in the wake of unveiling a corruption scandal allegedly implicating high-ranking Russian officials.

According to press reports, in March 2012 the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent about 30 income tax returns to Belarusian opposition activists. The documents, mailed to Belarus, disclosed income from per diems paid during a conference in Warsaw. The reports were commented by Danuta Przywara, President of the HFHR:

The European Court of Human Rights delivered the judgment in the case of K. versus Poland. The Strasbourg Court found that the coercive placement of a legally incapacitated person in a nursing home was in violation of the right to liberty.

The Supreme Court ruled in the case of Łukasz Kasprowicz, a blogger charged with defaming Zofia Springer, the mayor of Mosina, a town located in Poznań in western Poland. In June 2011 the blogger was acquitted by the Circuit Court in Poznań. A large part of the cassation complaint lodged by the private complainant was dismissed by the SC. In the Court’s opinion the Circuit Court’s judgment was free from the inadequacies identified in the complainant’s cassation.

The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the complaints of four judges not appointed to office by the Polish President. The cases of six more judges are yet to be heard. The claimants are represented pro-bono by Mr Marcin Ciemiński, Clifford Chance, and Mr Patrick Radzimierski, Salans.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights sent a letter to the Minister of Interior calling for explanations regarding the situation of foreigners without a valid travel document issued by their home country. The absence of such a document substantially hinders the process of obtaining a fixed-term residence permit from the Polish authorities.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and Amnesty International Poland issued an opinion to the Ministry of Interior on the draft premises of the new act on the use of physical force by law enforcement authorities. This is the third opinion given by the HFHR and AI on this law. Last week the bill was discussed at a consensus conference held by the Ministry of Interior.

The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the cassation complaint filed by the Internal Security Agency against the March judgment of the Provincial Administrative Court in Warsaw. In the judgment the PAC ordered the Agency to disclose statistics on the number of the employed investigative methods, according to the disclosure request submitted by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights.