Riot police have been deployed at Poland's Constitutional Court amid an escalating stand-off between the government and the court's top judges.
The row pits the government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk against his predecessors from the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS).
The police intervention came after Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said he had requested stripping the court's President Bogdan Święczkowski and Vice-President Bartłomiej Sochański of their immunity from prosecution to bring criminal charges against them.
Tusk has vowed to depoliticise the judiciary, and on Friday defended the move as PiS supporters gathered outside the court premises in Warsaw in protest.
The European courts ruled Poland's Constitutional Court was no longer an "independent and impartial tribunal", and Tusk's government has used those rulings as a basis to stop publishing the tribunal's rulings.
Tusk has failed to undo the PiS-era changes, partially because Nawrocki and his PiS-backed predecessor Andrzej Duda used their presidential vetoes to block his attempts.
Nawrocki has also refused to swear in five Constitutional Court judges elected by parliament since March on the grounds of alleged flaws in their selection procedure.
In a social media post, Tusk wrote: "Restoring the rule of law is our duty. After years of Law and Justice's lawlessness, this is a difficult, sometimes painful process that requires decisive action. There is no other way." Source: BBC
