A Warsaw court on Friday dismissed the appeal by Marcin Romanowski's defense attorney against the National Prosecutor's Office's decision from March to demand the return of items and to search the premises occupied by the PiS MP, PK reported. These actions were taken in March of this year in connection with a multi-threaded investigation into the Justice Fund, which Romanowski supervised as deputy minister of justice.
At the end of March, the ABW, together with prosecutors conducting the investigation into the Justice Fund and on their orders, carried out searches in dozens of places across the country, including at the premises of politicians of Sovereign Poland and members of parliament of the parliamentary group PIS: former head of the Ministry of Justice Zbigniew Ziobroas well as his former deputies Marcin Romanowski and Michał Woś. Their goal was to secure evidence, including documentation regarding the fund.
READ MORE: Services for politicians of Sovereign Poland
Romanowski's attorney, Bartosz Lewandowski, informed then that “all devices were secured during the activities” and announced that will prepare a “complaint to the court against the prosecutor's decision and the search action”.
Complaint rejected
Late on Friday afternoon, the National Prosecutor's Office announced on platform X that “the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów in Warsaw today dismissed the appeal filed by Marcin Romanowski's attorney against the decision of the prosecutor of the National Prosecutor's Office of March 25, 2024 to demand the surrender of items and to search the premises occupied by the above-mentioned suspect.”
As PK wrote, “in its justification, the Court indicated that conducting the search was justified”. “Moreover, the search was conducted correctly. The Court did not find any irregularities in this respect. In the Court's opinion, the fact of seizing the items was also fully supported by the provisions and circumstances of the case” – we read.
Romanowski and the Justice Fund scandal
At the beginning of July, “Gazeta Wyborcza” wrote that during searches at Romanowski's, who supervised the spending of money from the Justice Fund, a letter from the PiS chairman was found Jaroslaw Kaczynski from 2019. In it, Kaczyński asked the then Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro “to immediately prohibit Solidarna Polska candidates from using the Justice Fund in the election campaign.”
According to Gazeta Wyborcza, the letter is proof that Ziobro was fully aware that financing the campaign from this fund was illegal, and that Kaczyński “had heard about the abuses already in 2019, but limited himself to sending a letter.”
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The investigation by the National Prosecutor's Office into the Justice Fund, which has been ongoing since February of this year, is multi-threaded. It is being conducted, among other things, into the abuse of power and failure to perform duties by the Minister of Justice and ministry officials who were responsible for managing, distributing and settling funds from the Justice Fund.
In the opinion of the prosecutor's office, they provided – acting in order to achieve financial and personal benefits – in a discretionary and arbitrary manner financial support to beneficiaries of programs that were unrelated to the objectives of the Justice Fund, thereby acting to the detriment of the public interest – the State Treasury – and private interest, which resulted in limiting the availability of funds for eligible entities.
To date, charges have been brought against a dozen or so people, three of whom have been arrested. In addition, the Sejm, at the request of the prosecutor's office in this case, lifted the immunity of Romanowski and Woś. Further applications by prosecutors for the Sejm's consent to prosecute other politicians are also announced.
Romanowski himself was detained by the Internal Security Agency on July 15 and taken to the prosecutor's office. There He heard the chargesto which he did not admit. On July 16, the prosecutor's office requested the court to arrest Romanowski, arguing that there was a risk of obstruction. The court did not agree with this argument and did not agree to arrest Romanowski. The prosecutor's office filed appeals against this decision of the district court and it is waiting for the ruling.
Justice Fund
The Justice Fund has been operating since 2012. Its primary goal was to help victims, witnesses of crimes and their loved ones, as well as to help people released from prisons and their family members. The Fund has hundreds of millions of złoty at its disposal every year, which come from, among other things, compensation imposed by courts on convicts and deductions from the wages of prisoners who work while serving their sentences.
The controversy surrounding the fund began when the government came to power United Rightand Zbigniew Ziobro became the Minister of Justice.
Journalists revealed how huge amounts of money were transferred from the FS to organizations linked to the government, sometimes without any experience. The money, instead of going to projects combating crime, went, for example, to organizing information campaigns, organizing conferences, seminars, training, buying real estate or equipment. Supreme Audit Office In subsequent reports, she criticized the subsidies distributed in this way.
Main image source: TVN24