Fugitive opposition politician sets conditions for return to Poland from Hungary

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

An opposition politician wanted on an arrest warrant in Poland but who fled to Hungary, where he was last week given political asylum, has written to the Polish justice minister setting out five conditions under which he would return to face the charges against him.

The demands made by Marcin Romanowski call for the government to undo changes it has made to Poland’s justice system. His party, Law and Justice (PiS), claims they violate the rule of law. But the government says it is simply addressing rule-of-law violations committed by PiS when it was in power.

List otwarty do Ministra Sprawiedliwości Prokuratora Generalnego

Szanowny Panie Ministrze,
w nawiązaniu do Pana publicznej wypowiedzi, w której zapewnia mnie Pan, że mogę liczyć na uczciwy proces w Polsce, kieruję do Pana niniejszy list otwarty.
To nie zapewnienia ministra czy…

— Marcin Romanowski (@MarcinRoma19996) December 23, 2024

Romanowski is wanted in Poland on 11 charges relating to his time as a deputy justice minister in the former PiS government, including accusations that he participated in an organised criminal group, used crime as a source of income, and abused his power. He could face up to 25 years in jail.

However, the politician argues that he would not receive a fair trial in Poland, and was granted asylum in Hungary on that basis. Hungary’s ruling conservative Fidesz party has long been an ally of PiS.

On Monday morning, Romanowski wrote an open letter to Polish justice minister Adam Bodnar outlining his reasons for fleeing and the requirements for him to return.

Hungary has granted asylum to a Polish opposition politician wanted for alleged crimes committed as a minister in the former government

It says he would not receive a fair trial. But Poland’s foreign minister says they view the decision as a “hostile act” https://t.co/CNOSA3CS6S

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 19, 2024

He noted, for example, that Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently admitted that his government would sometimes “take actions that, according to some legal authorities, will be inconsistent or not fully compliant with the law”.

Romanowski also pointed to the fact that initially, in July this year, he was detained and charged by the authorities despite the fact that he then enjoyed immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council fo Europe (PACE).

Courts later determined that detention to have been unlawful and ordered Romanowski to be released. He was later stripped of his immunity by PACE, opening the way for him to be charged again.

 

In his letter to Bodnar, Romanowski then outlined his five demands to ensure that “the law is equal for everyone” and would “guarantee a fair trial not only for me, but for every citizen”. If those requirements are met, “I publicly commit to return to the country within six hours”, writes Romanowski.

The first demand is that the government publish all rulings by the Constitutional Tribunal. Tusk’s administration has not been doing so because three of the court’s judges were improperly appointed when PiS was in power and its recently departed chief justice did not legally hold to her position.

Second, Romanowski wants the government to recognise and comply with all rulings of the Supreme Court. The government argues that some rulings are invalid because they were issued by judges nominated by a judicial council overhauled by PiS in a manner that rendered it illegitimate.

The third demand is to restore court presidents that Romanowski says have been “illegally dismissed” by the government and the fourth is to “end illegal manipulation in the selection of judges to adjudicate criminal cases”. In neither case does Romanowski provide further details of his claims.

The Supreme Court has found that rulings made by the Constitutional Tribunal (TK) involving judges illegitimately appointed under the former PiS government are invalid.

One such ruling was the near-total abortion ban introduced by the TK in 2020 https://t.co/0tDuHNMQ2p

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 3, 2024

Finally, the politician calls for the government to “end the illegal blockade” on Dariusz Barski performing his role as national prosecutor. The government argues that Barski was improperly appointed by PiS, and therefore replaced him, but PiS continue to regard Barski as legitimately holding the position.

Bodnar has not yet publicly responded to Romanowski’s letter. However, interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak said that it was “pathetic that someone suspected of serious crimes dares to set any conditions”, reports news service Interia.

Siemoniak said that he “trusts in the strength of our justice system” and called on Romanowski to “have the courage to face the charges”.

Hungary’s decision to provide refuge to Romanowski has sparked a diplomatic dispute between the two countries’ governments, who were already often at loggerheads. Tusk revealed on Saturday that he had spoken to Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán, though without providing further details.

Poland has risen in @TheWJP’s annual Rule of Law Index, partially reversing the decline seen under the former PiS government https://t.co/t5SahvkAyk

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 24, 2024

Orbán himself, meanwhile, said that he wanted to avoid “escalating this dispute”. But he also added that he “believes this will not be the last event of its kind”. Tusk’s government has been seeking to bring charges against a number of former PiS ministers and other officials for alleged crimes.

Meanwhile, President Andrzej Duda, a PiS ally, told broadcaster RMF this morning that he was “surprised that such forces and resources were deployed to search for the MP [Romanowski], as if he were some kind of criminal, a bandit of the highest order”.

Regarding Hungary’s decision, Duda said that “we have to look into this and see why the Hungarian authorities decided to grant this asylum”.

Because Romanowski is currently subject to a European Arrest Warrant issued by Poland, a Hungarian court will now have to decide whether he should be returned to his homeland to face justice.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.



Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.