Adam Bodnar: There will be a European Arrest Warrant for Michał Kuczmierowski

Michał Kuczmierowski, who is wanted on an arrest warrant, said in an interview with a favorable PIS wPolityce.pl, which during the previous government spread government propaganda that he was currently in London and looking for work there. He announced that he wanted to return to Poland when “he would have a guarantee of a fair trial”. He also assessed that the Polish prosecutor's office was politicized, and he himself was being prosecuted for the needs of a “nice picture” for the current government.

Read also: Former head of government agency gives interview. Prosecutor's office comments

He commented on this interview on Friday Adam Bodnar on Polskie Radio 24. – I understand that this is the line of defense that has begun to be presented. (…) Please note, however, that this interview appeared only when the die was cast and the court decided on temporary arrest and agreed to issue an arrest warrant, after which this warrant appeared on the websites of the (Capital – ed.) Police Headquarters. Only then did Mr. Michał Kuczmierowski reveal himself – said the minister.

– Now the procedure is as follows: further procedural steps will be taken. If the prosecutor's office said “A”, then it must say “B”, which in this case is a request for a European Arrest Warrant – he added.

When asked if Kuczmierowski was hiding from law enforcement, Adam Bodnar said that “if an arrest warrant was issued for him, I can confirm that, according to the prosecutor's office, Kuczmierowski's whereabouts are unknown.”

The prosecutor wants to charge Michał Kuczmierowski with participation in an organized criminal group and exceeding authority. The whereabouts of the former RARS president are unknown. The prosecutor's office claims to have suspicions about Michał Kuczmierowski's whereabouts. On Monday, an arrest warrant was issued for him.

See also: There is an arrest warrant for the former president of RARS, Michał Kuczmierowski

The charges against Kuczmierowski are the result of an investigation into irregularities in the Government Agency for Strategic Reserves, which he headed. In addition to him, the charges are also directed against Paweł Szopa, the creator of the Red is Bad clothing brand. According to prosecutors, evidence has been obtained that allows them to be charged with “participating in an organized criminal group and exceeding their authority and failing to fulfill their duties in order to gain financial benefits,” which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

However, the PK announced last week that “the suspects' whereabouts in the country are unknown, which made it impossible to carry out procedural activities involving them”. Therefore, at the prosecutor's request, the court agreed to apply temporary arrest to Kuczmierowski. As the PK spokesman explained, this is temporary arrest issued to enable the search under an arrest warrant.

The investigation was initiated in December 2023 at the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw, and in April 2024 it was taken over by the Silesian Branch of the Department for Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor's Office in Katowice.

It concerns, among other things, the commission of from February 2021 to November 2023 exceeding the powers and failing to fulfil the duties of RARS employees in order to gain financial benefits. This concerns, among others, the delivery of power generators to the government agency by Paweł Szopa's companies for PLN 350 million, even though he had previously purchased them in China for less than 70 million zlotys.