Poland issues arrest warrant for opposition politician facing criminal charges

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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.

Prosecutors in Poland have issued an arrest warrant for Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister and now opposition MP, who is wanted on criminal charges. The decision was taken after police were unable to locate the politician, leading the authorities to conclude he has gone into hiding.

This development is the latest twist in a long-running saga involving efforts by prosecutors to bring 11 charges against Romanowski – including for participating in an organised criminal group, using crime as a source of income, and abusing power – related to his time as deputy justice minister.

If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in jail. However, Romanowski and his colleagues in Law and Justice (PiS), Poland’s main opposition party, claim the case against him is politically motivated.

Policjanci @Policja_KSP, na podstawie listu gończego wydanego przez @PK_GOV_PL poszukują Marcina Romanowskiego. Mężczyzna ukrywa się przed organami ścigania.
List gończy pod linkiem: https://t.co/hARP6Yp0es

— Jacek Dobrzyński (@JacekDobrzynski) December 12, 2024

Romanowski was initially detained in July before being released after a court found that he still had immunity from prosecution as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). In October, PACE stripped Romanowski of that immunity.

That opened the way for prosecutors to present Romanowski with the charges against him. They also requested that he be placed in pretrial detention for an initial period of three months. On Monday this week, a court approved that request.

While the politician’s lawyer pledged to appeal against that decision, prosecutors in the meantime issued a request to police to detain Romanowski. However, since then, despite searching multiple addresses, the authorities have been unable to locate him.

His lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, notes that Romanowski has recently “undergone a serious surgical procedure”. On Monday, his party colleague Janusz Kowalski shared a picture of Romanowski in what appeared to be a hospital bed, though the date and location of the image were undisclosed.

However, the spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, Przemysław Nowak, says that Romanowski checked himself out of hospital on Wednesday last week. He added that, since Monday this week, the politician’s phones have been turned off.

“This was an indication that we are dealing with intentional hiding by the suspect,” said Nowak, quoted by broadcaster Polsat. As a result, prosecutors issued an arrest warrant for Romanowski today.

“This is probably the first time in Poland that a person wanted on an arrest warrant is a currently sitting member of parliament,” added Nowak.

The spokesman for Poland’s interior ministry, Jacek Dobrzyński, said that “everything indicates” Romanowski is in Poland but that the authorities are not ruling out that he has gone abroad. Nowak added that there was no evidence Romanowski had bought tickets to travel outside the country.

A Polish opposition politician has been stripped of his immunity by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to face charges in his homeland over alleged crimes committed while serving as a minister in the former PiS government https://t.co/sL2lGOO8vk

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) October 2, 2024

A number of Polish media outlets, including Polsat, have reported, based on unnamed sources, that the politician is indeed abroad, and perhaps even outside the European Schengen Area. If that turns out to be the case, the authorities would have to seek an additional international warrant for him.

Lewandowski, the lawyer, however, told broadcaster RMF that he “has no knowledge that my client is in hiding”. But he added that he could not reveal any knowledge of Romanowski’s whereabouts due to client-attorney privilege.

PiS figures, meanwhile, have continued to insist that Romanowski is being targeted for political reasons by a government intent on destroying the opposition.

“Romanowski’s case is rigged on political orders,” tweeted former PiS justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro. “This is pure political revenge, not a fair trial.”

The government’s majority in parliament has voted for Zbigniew Ziobro, who served as justice minister in the former PiS government, to be detained and forcibly brought to testify before a committee investigating the use of Pegasus spyware under PiS https://t.co/OOxIz3HrCZ

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 6, 2024

However, the speaker of parliament, Szymon Hołownia, who is one of the leaders of the ruling coalition, criticised Romanowski for considering himself “above the law” and “running away from responsibility”, reports broadcaster TVN.

Since coming to power one year ago, the coalition government led by Donald Tusk has prioritised holding former PiS officials accountable for alleged corruption and abuses of power.

In addition to Romanowski, prosecutors are seeking to bring charges against a number of former PiS government ministers, including Mariusz Kamiński, Michał Woś and Michał Dworczyk.

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: Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 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.