Riot police were locked in a tense standoff with protesters outside Poland’s constitutional court on Friday night after its top judge was suspended in the latest escalation in a decade-long dispute over the court’s legal status.

The clashes followed a controversial decision by a group of government-appointed judges to suspend the court’s contested president, Bogdan Święczkowski, and his deputy, Bartłomiej Sochański, amid disagreements over the bench’s legitimacy.

The move prompted a furious reaction from the rightwing opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, with its leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, condemning what he claimed was an “assault” on the court.

The court frequently ruled in favour of Polish legislation over EU law and the European Union accused Poland’s highest court of being too close to the nationalist political power of the time.

The PiS-backed conservative president, Karol Nawrocki, a close ally of Donald Trump, turned his plane around en route to a state visit in Senegal to return to Warsaw…