(22 Jul 2017) Thousands of protesters gathered in front of the Polish Supreme Court in Warsaw on Saturday evening to rally against a new law that would give politicians substantial influence over the country's top judicial body.
People held up lit candles during the demonstration.
Earlier in the day, several hundred protesters gathered in front of the house of the leader of Poland's ruling Law and Justice party, Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
Protesters chanted "dictator" as police guarded the front and back entrance to the property.
The European Union and many international legal experts said the changes would mark a dramatic reversal for a country hailed as a model of democratic transition over the past quarter century, and move Poland closer toward authoritarianism.
The Law and Justice party defended the changes as reforms to a justice system that Kaczynski said was never purged of former communists after that system collapsed in 1989.
The claim is rejected by critics.
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