Tribunal ruling means Lepper and colleagues may have to face the music

Several Samoobrona deputies, including party leader Andrzej Lepper, are facing the prospect of a return to court, after the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that despite their parliamentary immunity, deputies should face prosecution for crimes committed before their election. Immediately after the parliamentary elections courts suspended the trials of several Samoobrona deputies, since they were protected by their immunity. Human rights ombudsman Andrzej Zoll claims that trials opened before the elections should be allowed to continue. According to a proposal presented by Civic Platform (PO) leaders, a deputy's right to immunity should be limited, so that parliament would have to give its consent to a deputy being granted immunity, instead of the present arrangement, under which parliament must remove the immunity before legal proceedings can be started. (Zycie, p. 1; Gazeta Wyborcza, pp. 1, 4) A.Z.