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In March the Supreme Court dismissed a cassation complaint filed by the Appellate Prosecutor’s Office in Białystok. This marked the end of a four-year long trial against Dariusz Basałaj, a prison guard working at the Detention Centre in Białystok. In 2009 Mr Basałaj was charged with contributing to the death of one of the inmates. The facts of the case go back to April 2008 when Andrzej Ł., a state witness, hanged himself in the in-cell sanitary annex of one of cells in the detention centre in Białystok.

The Court of Appeal in Poznań ruled that the request to leave a Poznań restaurant which had been directed to a Roma guest had been discriminatory. The Court held that the owner of the club Cuba Libre had acted unlawfully. The incident took place on 10 December 2010. On that day the claimant, Adam G. and three other people went to the Cuba Libre restaurant.

The case pending before the District Court in Rzeszów concerns the legality of surrendering the wanted M.D. to the Republic of Turkey. The individual is a Turkish Kurd. In 1996 he was sentenced to harsh life imprisonment by the State Security Court in Izmir. Further, upon the abolishment of the State Security Courts, his sentence was changed to a term of imprisonment which was subsequently upheld by the Turkish Supreme Court.

Józef Głuchowski sued two bank establishments in Warsaw alleging that his personal interests had been infringed upon as the banks had denied him access to toilet facilities. The last hearing ended with the settlement between the claimant and one of the banks. By the settlement, the bank agreed, among other things, to make its toilets available to customers.

The case brought by three nurses from Łódź, who had been dismissed for organising an allegedly illegal strike, has been completed. On appeal, the Circuit Court in Łódź upheld the decision of the first-instance court ordering re-employment of the nurses. The nurses strike in the N. Barlicki Teaching Hospital in Łódź began in early September 2008 and lasted for eleven days.

In early February 2012 the European Court of Human Rights communicated the case Gójski v. Poland. In its application Mr Gójski argues that the administration of the prison facility in which he served his sentence failed to provide him with proper health care. The applicant contends that he could not properly take care of his personal hygiene and meet his physiological needs in a cell in which he was detained.

As a part invited to the additional open consultations regarding the amendment announced by the Ministry of Administration and Digitization the HFHR has put forward its comments on the amendment to the Telecommunications Act. According to the Foundation, the current law on the retention of telecommunications data requires urgent legislative changes.

The Circuit Court in Nowy Sącz allowed Russia’s request for expulsion of Alexander Ignatenko, former first deputy prosecutor of the Moscow region. Mr Ignatenko was arrested by the Polish Internal Security Agency at the beginning of 2012. The HFHR has presented an opinion in the case. According to the Foundation, there is a reasonable concern that Mr Ignatenko’s extradition to Russian Federation may result in a violation of his rights and freedoms, including the right to a fair trial.

Taking into account the significant public interest in the works on an amendment to the Assemblies Act, the joint Sejm Committees of Justice and Human Rights and Administration and Internal Affairs decided to hold a public hearing on the amendment. The hearing was scheduled at noon on 7 March 2012. As part of the public consultation process, the HFHR submitted an opinion containing a number of legal concerns relating to individual provisions of the draft amendment.