On Monday, the court will consider the prosecutor's request regarding the possible arrest of Marcin Romanowski, a PiS MP who oversaw the Justice Fund as deputy head of the Ministry of Justice in 2019-2023. The prosecutor's office accuses the politician of committing 11 crimes.
The application of the National Prosecutor's Office regarding the arrest of Romanowski is to be considered by a single panel of judge Monika Louklinska in the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów. So far, no court has expressed a substantive opinion on the merits of the prosecutor's request due to previous formal obstacles related to the immunity of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which protects Romanowski.
The court was supposed to decide on possible arrest on November 28, but the meeting was adjourned due to the absence of Romanowski, who presented a medical certificate confirming his illness.
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Charges against Romanowski
The National Prosecutor's Office accuses the politician of committing 11 crimes, including participation in an organized criminal group and fixing competitions for money from the Justice Fund. These crimes allegedly involved indicating to subordinate employees entities that should win competitions for subsidies from the Justice Fund.
Romanowski also allegedly ordered corrections of erroneous offers before submitting them and allowed subsidies to be granted to entities that did not meet formal and material requirements. The charges also concern the misappropriation of money in the total amount of over PLN 107 million and attempted misappropriation of over PLN 58 million.
The National Prosecutor's Office has been conducting a multi-threaded investigation into the Justice Fund since February. In her opinion, the need to arrest Romanowski results from a real fear of him tampering with and obstructing the proceedings. This involves determining the content of explanations and testimonies with other people, as well as destroying or hiding evidence.
According to prosecutor Piotr Woźniak, Romanowski was to make arrangements with other co-suspects, including: Urszula D., Karolina K. and Tomasz M., evidence that should be destroyed so that it does not reach representatives of law enforcement agencies and the justice system. Moreover, he and other co-suspects determined the content of untrue trial statements.
Other grounds for applying pre-trial detention against Romanowski include the severe penalty he faces – up to 25 years in prison and the high probability of committing the alleged acts.
Main photo source: Paweł Supernak/PAP