Andrzej Seremet

President Lech Kaczynski has appointed Andrzej Seremet for the post of Poland’s Attorney General.  

Seremet will be the first Attorney General since the office was separated from the Justice Ministry. The formal separation comes into force at the end of this month.

“Mr. Seremet has devoted his professional life to criminal law. (…) He is a man from outside the prosecutors’ world, which I consider to be a virtue,” said Lech Kaczynski. 

In January, the National Justice Board recommended one judge, Andrzej Seremet, and one prosecutor, Edward Zalewski, out of 16 people who applied for the post. Seremet was supported by 15 members of the board and his main rival Zalewski by 13 members.  

The Attorney General, who serves a six-year term, appoints investigators for key posts in the Attorney General’s Office.  

Earlier, media reports suggested that Seremet has no experience as a prosecutor, which may make it difficult for him to hold the office. “It will be a risky choice,” commented Rzeczpospolita daily and Polska The Times stressed that the judge’s independence may turn out to be inconvenient.  

Andrzej Seremet was born in 1959 in Radlowo, southern Poland. He graduated from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and in 1980s worked in a district and regional courts in Tarnow and since 1997 in the Court of Appeal in Krakow. In 2008, Seremet was delegated for several months to the Supreme Court. (mg/pg)

Source: IAR