Polish opposition politician stripped of European immunity to face criminal charges

A Polish opposition politician has been stripped of his immunity by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to face charges in his homeland over alleged crimes committed while serving as a minister in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

The development is the latest twist in a legal saga that saw the politician in question, Marcin Romanowski, initially detained and charged in July before being released after a court found that he still had immunity from prosecution as a member of PACE.

Zgromadzenie Parlamentarne Rady Europy uchyliło immunitet M. Romanowskiemu. Dziękuję Zespołowi Śledczemu nr 2 w @PK_GOV_PL za ciężką pracę i przygotowanie skutecznego wniosku. Teraz wszystko w rękach polskiego wymiaru sprawiedliwości.

— Adam Bodnar (@Adbodnar) October 2, 2024

On Wednesday evening, the PACE – which is made up of members drawn from national parliaments across Europe – voted by a majority of 85 to 23 to strip Romanowski of immunity.

That decision had been requested by prosecutors in Poland after a Polish court last week rejected their appeal against recognising Romanowski’s PACE immunity.

Prosecutors to issue Romanowski with 11 charges – including participation in an organised criminal group, having crime as a source of income, and abuse of power – dating to his time as a deputy justice minister. If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in jail.

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However, the politician’s lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, argues that prosecutors are not legally allowed to charge Romanowski because of the fact that they unlawfully did so in July, when he was protected by PACE immunity.

“Proceedings must therefore be discontinued…[and] taking any [further] procedural steps is inadmissible,” wrote Lewandowski after PACE’s vote this afternoon.

Additionally, Lewandowski argued that the decision by Poland’s own parliament in July to strip Romanowski of immunity was invalid because it involved national prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk, who was confirmed last week by the Supreme Court to have been illegitimately appointed by the government.

‼️W związku z uchyleniem immunitetu posłowi @MarcinRoma19996 przez Zgromadzenie Parlamentarne Rady Europy należy przypomnieć, że:

▶️ ponowne zatrzymanie pana posła nie jest dopuszczalne z uwagi na treść art. 248 par. 3 KPK. @MarcinRoma19996 został zatrzymany bezprawnie w dniu…

— Bartosz Lewandowski (@BartoszLewand20) October 2, 2024

That interpretation has, however, been rejected by the office of prosecutor general Adam Bodnar, who also serves as justice minister.

Bodnar’s spokeswoman, Anna Adamiak, told news website Wirtualna Polska that “a positive decision by PACE [on lifting immunity] removes the obstacle to prosecutors taking procedural steps involving Mr Romanowski…There are no [other] obstacles to presenting such charges against Mr Romanowski again”.

However, she added that such action would not be taken immediately after the vote because prosecutors need to wait to receive PACE’s resolution in writing.

A court has ruled that an opposition MP cannot be detained on criminal charges because he has immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

The decision has exposed the government’s „thuggish methods”, says the politician https://t.co/5fxo0iSiNC

— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) September 28, 2024

Romanowski and his allies have also complained that he was not given the right to a proper defence when PACE was considering the request to lift his immunity because the case was fast-tracked, giving him insufficient time to prepare.

“Accelerated procedures, lack of written court justifications, attempt to force a hearing without preparation, from one hour to the next – this is the true face of the ‘rule of law’ in the European and Polish version,” tweeted Romanowski. “A scandalous violation of the rules by those who should defend them!”

But Ryszard Petru, an MP from Poland’s ruling coalition, told people “not to be fooled by what PiS says”. He noted that Romanowski had failed to attend a committee hearing on his immunity and present his defence.

PACE’s decision was welcomed by politicians associated with the Polish government, which took office last December and pledged to hold to account members of the former PiS government for their alleged crimes.

Koniec unikania odpowiedzialności. Marcin Romanowski stracił immunitet Rady Europy! pic.twitter.com/kDn19P703n

— Dariusz Joński (@Dariusz_Jonski) October 2, 2024

Main image credit: MS (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.