Accused judge back at work but may still face false information charges

Controversial judge Zbigniew Wielkanowski has returned to work, despite faci ng accusations that he had improper contacts with criminals, including defen dants in cases he was presiding over. The Supreme Court overturned an earlie r decision to suspend Wielkanowski, after ruling there were insufficient gro unds to launch a disciplinary hearing against him. However, the same court i s expected soon to rule whether Wielkanowski should be stripped of his immun ity so that he can face charges of giving false information about a crime. A sked to comment on the case, Justice Minister Barbara Piwnik said she hopes that disciplinary investigations into judges in Poland would be significantl y speeded up, and that judges committing crimes would themselves take the de cision to resign. (Rzeczpospolita, p. A4; Gazeta Wyborcza, p. 5) M.K.