Poles have demonstrated against the judicial reforms | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images Amnesty International calls on Poland to stop targeting judges The country is under fire for a slate of judicial reforms by ruling Law and Justice party.

Polish authorities must “immediately stop" cracking down on judges and prosecutors and reinstate judicial independence, Amnesty International said in a report released Thursday.

The report, titled "Poland: Free Courts, Free People," documents the impact of reforms implemented by the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) in 2015, which the human rights watchdog describes as "a near wholesale take-over of the judiciary at various levels."

Poland should "immediately stop using disciplinary proceedings against judges and prosecutors merely for their exercise of the right to freedom of expression; for their rulings and other legitimate activities directly linked to their work," according the report. The findings were based on research conducted between March 2017 and May 2019 and interviews with Polish judges and prosecutors.

Poland is embroiled in a battle with Brussels over its judicial reforms. In June, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled the government's move to lower the retirement age of Supreme Court judges illegal. The reform would have seen about 40 percent of sitting Supreme Court judges pushed out, including the president.

The CJEU is also considering the legality of a newly established Supreme Court disciplinary body, which, according to an opinion issued last month by the court's advocate general, "does not satisfy the requirements of judicial independence under EU law.”

The EU is currently undertaking a so-called Article 7 procedure that could see Poland stripped of its voting rights as an EU member country.