The extended panel adjudicating in Marcin Romanowski's case includes two new judges – the Onet portal pointed out. One of them is Aleksandra Rusin-Batko, who used to work in the Ministry of Justice. Her direct superior at that time was Marcin Romanowski.
On Thursday, the District Court in Warsaw announced the expansion of the panel adjudicating in the case of the prosecutor's office's appeal against the decision of the district court, which did not agree to the temporary arrest of MP Marcin Romanowski.
Initially, the adjudicating panel was to be a single-person one, with Przemysław Dziwański as the reporting judge. The prosecutor's office requested his exclusion, but the Warsaw Regional Court did not grant this request. In its justification, the prosecutor's office indicated that Dziwański was appointed to the position of judge of the District Court in Warsaw in 2023 by the neo-National Council of the Judiciary, which – due to, among other things, judgments of European tribunals – means that he cannot be considered a guarantor of an independent and impartial court.
“Due to the extensive evidence, its complexity, weight and the nature of the charges brought against the suspect, the District Court in Warsaw decided to expand the adjudicating panel to three professional judges,” the Regional Court in Warsaw said in a statement.
Marcin RomanowskiPAP/Tomasz Gzell
It was reported that through a drawing using the SLPS system, judge Wanda Jankowska-Bebeszko and judge Aleksandra Rusin-Batko joined the panel of judges. Przemysław Dziwański will adjudicate together with them. The date of the hearing on the prosecutor's appeal against the decision of the district court to refuse consent to Romanowski's temporary arrest will be set after September 23.
– The judge (Dziwański – ed.) will be on leave from Monday, from which he will return in September. He asked for a date to be set after September 23, because then he will be able to deal with this case – said Anna Ptaszek, spokeswoman for criminal matters of the District Court in Warsaw, in an interview with TVN24 on Thursday.
Judge Anna Ptaszek on the details of Marcin Romanowski's caseTVN24
Romanowski's former subordinate is to rule
The Onet portal pointed out that not only judge Dziwański was appointed by the politicized party of the time PIS neo-KRS, but also judge Aleksandra Rusin-Batko.
As it was written, “the judge came to the capital district only on December 6, 2023, after the elections won by the current ruling coalition.” “She was appointed to the position in the district by President Andrzej Duda, following the promotion of 76 defectively appointed so-called neo-judges,” it was reported.
“The problem is that until quite recently Aleksandra Rusin-Batko, as the director of a department in the Ministry of Justice, was a person who was directly, officially, subordinate to Romanowski,” Onet pointed out. He added that “Rusin-Batko was the director of the Department of Strategy and European Funds in the ministry headed by Zbigniew Ziobro until January 12 this year. She took over as the head of this department before 2019, because in that year she was already, as a director from the Ministry of Justice, appointed as a member of one of the committees established by Ziobro,” the portal wrote.
Aleksandra Rusin-Batko's biographical note on the Ministry of Justice website
“Since April 23, 2021, this department has been supervised by none other than the Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Justice, Marcin Romanowski,” wrote Onet, which cited in this context the order of the Minister of Justice of April 22, 2021.
– The situation is, in fact, exceptionally uncomfortable – judge Anna Ptaszek told Onet. – There are two possible moves in this case. The prosecutor's office can apply for the exclusion of the judge or she herself will make an appropriate statement, withdrawing from this case and claiming that she was linked by service to the person she was supposed to rule on – she explained.
Main image source: Paweł Supernak/PAP