Controversy over detention of Polish opposition MP who claims to have European immunity

The lawyer for an opposition MP who was yesterday detained and charged with alleged crimes committed while serving in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government claims his client was detained in breach of the law because he has immunity as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

However, the national prosecutor’s office, which brought the charges against the politician, says that this immunity does not protect the politician from charges for alleged crimes unconnected to his work at PACE.

Last week, the government’s majority in the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, approved a request from prosecutors to strip the MP in question, Marcin Romanowski, of his immunity as a member of the Sejm and to place him in pretrial detention.

Romanowski is accused of 11 crimes – 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 in the former government. If found guilty, he faces up to 15 years in jail.

Yesterday, the politician was detained by officers from the Internal Security Agency (ABW) at his home.

However, Romanowski’s lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, said that his client’s detention constituted “a gross violation of the law and a violation of international law”.

This is because Romanowski “has, as of 23 January 2024, a second immunity [other than his Polish parliamentary immunity] resulting from membership of the delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe”, wrote Lewandowski.

“Never in the post-1989 history of Poland has there been such a blatant example of a breach of international law and deprivation of liberty of a member of a body of an international organisation,” said the lawyer.

In another post on X, Lewandowski said that his client pleaded not guilty to the charges and “presented his extensive statement while indicating that his detention was illegal and the presentation of charges ineffective due to the immunity protecting him. He also refused to sign any documents”.

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However, the national prosecutor’s office rejected Lewandowski’s criticism and claimed that “the immunity of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe did not exclude the possibility of detaining and charging Mr Marcin Romanowski. Nor does it exclude the possibility of his provisional arrest”.

To support their position, prosecutors cited their own “analysis of the legislation in force” and “two opinions from independent academic centres” without, however, specifying which centres they consulted.

They said that the immunity of members of PACE does not exclude the possibility of being charged and detained if the offence is not connected with the exercise of their mandate as a member of the assembly.

“The granting of consent to hold a member of the Sejm criminally liable for a criminal offence under national procedure is equivalent to the granting of consent vis-à-vis a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe when the member of the Sejm resides in the territory of Poland,” they added.

The prosecutors’ interpretation was echoed by representatives of the government.

“The story involving dual immunity is an obvious attempt [by Lewandowski] to defend his client, who is facing 11 charges by the national prosecutor’s office,” wrote deputy justice minister Arkadiusz Myrcha on X. “That is the role of a lawyer.”

“However, the issue has been addressed and this immunity does not apply to the case. Nor is it a protection against past sins,” add Myrcha.

In an interview with broadcaster TVN, Myrcha said that, “in the event of a conflict between two immunities, national and European, the national rules and the national immunity, which was waived on Friday, take precedence”.

Political allies of Romanowski, however, condemned his detention, accusing the government of carrying out “illegal actions against the opposition”.

Zbigniew Ziobro, who served as justice minister in the PiS government when the alleged crimes took place, called Romanowski “another victim of the regime” of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“You are possessed by revenge and will reach for any wickedness, break any law to try to carry out this revenge,” Ziobro wrote to Tusk on X.

Romanowski’s colleagues also accused the current authorities of arranging the detention of the politician in such a way as to make a show.

They pointed out that the politician had himself voluntarily appeared at the prosecutor’s office on Friday. Instead of being received then, ABW officers in balaclavas detained him at his home in front of television cameras on Monday.

“Marcin Romanowski declared outright that he would report to the national prosecutor’s office himself,” wrote former PiS prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki. “He was not hiding. And yet he had to be spectacularly detained, for drama, for spectacle, for effect. This is disgusting and disgraceful.”

Main image credit: Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is senior editor at Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She previously worked for Reuters.