Marcin Romanowski's case. Arkadiusz Myrcha on the decision to exclude the judge: we do not argue with this ruling

On Wednesday, Marcin Romanowski's defense attorney, attorney Bartosz Lewandowski, announced that the District Court in Warsaw had not accepted the prosecutor's motion to exclude judge Przemysław Dziwański from considering the appeal against the refusal to apply temporary arrest to the politician. The National Prosecutor's Office, which requested the exclusion of Dziwański due to his nomination by the current National Council of the Judiciary and the fact that he signed a list of support for the National Council of the Judiciary for the former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice Łukasz Piebiak, announced that it had not received information on this matter.

READ MORE: Romanowski's attorney on the decision in the judge's case. The prosecutor's office “has no information”

Deputy Minister of Justice Arkadiusz Myrcha, referring to the case in “Tak jest” on TVN24, said that “from what we know, the court made such a decision in a closed session and of course such a ruling is not disputed, but accepted for implementation.” He added that the prosecutor's office will familiarize itself with the written justification of the court's decision.

– Now we have to wait for the substantive decision of this appeal by the judge selected by lot and, of course, also adapt the procedural activities to such a decision – he added.

Myrcha said that the National Council of the Judiciary, whose members were elected by politicians and not judicial circles in 2018, is a “legally tainted institution”. Therefore – as he added – “the procedure towards people nominated by the National Council of the Judiciary as judges is also tainted”.

Member of Parliament of Sovereign Poland (club PIS), former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice Michał Wójcik said that “there are no neo-judges and judges, there are simply judges, because in Poland there is a clear procedure for selecting people for judicial positions”. – You cannot divide judges into better, worse neo-judges, judges – he added.

He also assessed that “the prosecutor's office is making a fool of itself, because there was a letter from the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, which clearly states, and also cites regulations, that MP Marcin Romanowski is protected by international immunity”.

Motion of the National Prosecutor's Office for the exclusion of judge Dziwański from participating in the consideration of the appeal against the court's decision in Romanowski's case was filed with the District Court last Friday. On July 16, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów refused to arrest the politician of Sovereign Poland, suspected by the prosecutor's office of, among other things, participation in an organized criminal group and rigging competitions for money from the Justice Fund.

READ: The prosecutor's office appealed the decision not to arrest him. OKO.press: a neo-judge will decide

The prosecutor's office wants to order Romanowski, who was deputy minister of justice in the United Right government, to be detained for three months. However, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów on July 16 refused to arrest the politician due to his immunity from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The prosecutor's office, filing a complaint against this decisionnoted that the legal reanalysis indicates that the scope of immunity protection concerning Romanowski in the Council of Europe's PA does not cover the acts he is accused of. The case was referred to the District Court in Warsaw and is awaiting a decision.

The prosecutor's office announced that if the first-instance court's decision to refuse to arrest Romanowski is upheld, it will apply to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to lift Romanowski's immunity.

READ MORE: What is the Marcin Romanowski case about? Let's sum it up.

This announcement was also repeated by Myrcha. – If, as a result, the court finds it necessary to apply to the Council of Europe to lift such immunity, then no one in the prosecutor's office will of course hesitate to file such a motion – he noted.

– What's more, everything will be done to translate this motion to lift immunity into all languages ​​in the Council of Europe, which – as I recall – was read by the prosecutor for over an hour and a half at the rules committee, because that is the scale of the charges brought against MP Romanowski. Here, no one will back down, no one will give in. This case will be carried out to the very end, because the most important thing is for the right people to stand trial – Myrcha concluded.