Marcin Romanowski's case. Judge Aleksandra Rusin-Batko filed a motion to exclude her from the bench

On Friday, the District Court in Warsaw announced that Judge Aleksandra Rusin-Batko had filed a motion to be excluded from the panel that is to decide on the prosecutor's office's appeal against the lack of arrest of MP Marcin Romanowski.

Earlier, on Thursday, KO MP Att. Roman Giertychwho manages the work of the settlement team PISpublished on platform X a copy of Judge Rusin-Batko's email to Romanowski dated October 19, 2021, i.e. at the time when he was Deputy Minister of Justice and supervised the Justice Fund.

The District Court in Warsaw is to consider the prosecutor's appeal against the decision of the lower court, which on July 16 did not agree to Romanowski's arrest. On Thursday, the court announced that due to the extensiveness and complexity of the evidence, as well as the nature of the charges brought against the MP, it was decided to expand the adjudicating panel to three judges. In addition to Judge Przemysław Dziwański, Judge Wanda Jankowska-Bebeszko and Judge Aleksandra Rusin-Batko joined the panel by drawing lots. The court also announced that the date of the hearing in this case will be set after September 23.

As TVN24 reporter Marta Abramczyk has established, it is still unknown when the hearing on the exclusion of the judge from the adjudicating panel will take place.

The spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office, Przemysław Nowak, said that Marcin Romanowski had heard the charges and was now a suspect. – Of course, this could change if the court decides that we were wrong. We are continuing these proceedings, just to be clear. We have a large number of other threads where activities are being conducted. We can try to apply to the court to have this appeal considered more quickly. We will see what form it will take – Nowak said.

The spokesman admitted that “the case is urgent”. – The legislator indicated that it should be examined within seven days, not without reason. (If – editor's note) arrest is applied, the person is deprived of liberty and that is why it is urgent. If it is not (arrest applied – editor's note), it is because the other party, the prosecutor's office, believes that there is a risk of obstruction, hiding an escape, which may also have negative consequences. And that is also urgent. That is why we believe that it is urgent. However, the ball is definitely in the court's court – explained the spokesman.

The prosecutor's office wants to apply a three-month arrest to Romanowski, who was the deputy minister of justice in the United Right government. However, on 16 July, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów refused to arrest the politician due to his immunity from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. In its appeal against this decision, the prosecutor's office claimed that a new legal analysis indicates that the scope of immunity protection concerning Romanowski in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 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 District Court in Warsaw upholds the decision of the first instance court to refuse to arrest Romanowski due to the immunity of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, it will apply for its lifting.