The prosecutor's office is waiting for the Dominican Republic's position on the transfer of Paweł Szopa to Poland

Paweł Szopa, businessman, creator of the Red is Bad brand, was wanted in connection with an investigation into irregularities at the Government Agency of Strategic Reserves, in which he is a suspect. He was arrested on Friday in the Dominican Republic.

The spokeswoman for the Prosecutor General, Anna Adamiak, said on Saturday morning at a press conference that since Friday, prosecutors from the Silesian Branch Department, the unit of the prosecutor's office conducting the proceedings in which “Paweł S. is wanted, have been in ongoing contact with the Dominican side using the help of our consular service.

– The consul from the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Panama is taking steps to determine the procedure for transferring Mr. Paweł S. to Poland – she added.

She reminded that this mode may consist of two procedures.

– The first is the extradition procedure, because Mr. Paweł S. was detained on the basis of an international arrest warrant, which initiates the search procedure and, consequently, the extradition procedure. But it is also possible in this case to apply the deportation procedure, which is much more efficient and takes less time, because it is an administrative procedure and, at least in Poland, the decision in this respect is made by the competent commandant of the Border Guard, said Adamiak.

– We are, of course, waiting for the position of the Dominican side, because it is the authorities of this country that will determine the form of cooperation in the transfer of Mr. Paweł S. – she added.

The spokeswoman emphasized that Poland does not have an extradition treaty signed with Dominican Republic. She emphasized, however, that “this does not exclude the possibility that in such proceedings the detainee would be brought to Poland, because the principle of reciprocity applies in international custom regulating good relations between states.”

As tvn24.pl journalist Robert Zieliński found out, the operation to detain Szopa was also coordinated by the ELPACCTO team – a unit operating in the General Secretariat of Interpol, created to combat the most serious international organized crime in South America, the Caribbean and Europe.

He was detained – on the basis of an Interpol red notice, issued at the request of the National Prosecutor's Office in Katowice – Organized Crime and Corruption Department, in connection with money laundering and exposure to multi-million losses of state institutions – by officers of the National Interpol Office in the Dominican Republic, in cooperation with Office of International Police Cooperation of the Police Headquarters.