WARSAW - Riot police were deployed outside Poland's constitutional court in Warsaw on Friday night after its top judge was suspended, The Guardian reported. According to the newspaper, officers were in a standoff with protesters, which it described as the latest escalation in a decade-long dispute over the court's legal status.
The Guardian also reported that President Karol Nawrocki was seen struggling to gain entry to the court building amid a long-running row over the court's legitimacy. The newspaper's summary is cut off while describing what the clashes followed, so the reporting available here does not establish the immediate trigger beyond the suspension.
BBC News, in a report headlined as a stand-off over control of Poland's top court, said the situation came after the government suspended two senior justices and moved to bring criminal charges against them.
The two accounts differ on who was suspended. The Guardian described the suspension of the court's top judge, while BBC News described two senior justices. Neither summary names the justices or says whether the top judge is one of the two, and neither describes the charges in detail.
The available reporting does not say how the standoff ended or what happened at the court after Friday night. Both accounts are summaries, and fuller reporting on the government's actions and the court's position was not available for this story.
Sources: BBC News: Police deployed during stand-off over control of Poland's top court; The Guardian: Riot police deployed to Poland’s constitutional court after judge suspended.