Polish opposition MP released from custody after invoking European immunity

A court has ordered the release of opposition MP Marcin Romanowski, who was detained and charged this week in relation to alleged crimes committed while serving in the former Law and Justice (PiS) government.

It did so after the head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) confirmed that Romanowski enjoys immunity as a member of the assembly.

The incident has led to criticism of the prosecutorial service – including from a prominent figure in the current ruling coalition – for failing to seek the lifting of Romanowski’s PACE immunity before detaining and charging him.

The dramatic turn of events took place at a court hearing held just before midnight on Tuesday. The court had been due to consider the case on Wednesday morning but brought the hearing forward.

Romanowski’s lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, announced at 11:55 p.m. that his client had been released then shared a photo of the pair together an hour later. The court’s justification for its ruling – which can still be appealed by prosecutors – has not yet been released.

However, it came after the president of PACE, Theodoros Roussopoulos, submitted a letter to the Polish authorities “confirming that, as a member of the assembly, Mr Romanowski enjoys the immunities and privileges provided for in…[agreements] which have been ratified by Poland”.

Roussopoulos noted that, if the Polish authorities want such immunities to be lifted, they must lodge a request with PACE. He called on the Polish authorities to “suspend judicial proceedings pending the lifting of immunity of the assembly”.

Romanowski’s immunity as a member of the Polish parliament was lifted on Friday. However, after he was subsequently detained and charged on Monday, Lewandowski argued that this violated the politician’s immunity as a member of PACE.

That argument was disputed by the national prosecutor’s office, which said that it had two legal opinions stating that Romanowski was not covered by PACE immunity in this case.

The court has now sided with Romanowski, who after his release declared that he would take legal action against the prosecutors who ordered his detention and against the (so-far-unnamed) lawyers who issued the two legal opinions justifying that detention.

“We are dealing with an absolute scandal,” declared the MP. “Poland has been reduced to the status of Belarus, when not only are the provisions of domestic law being violated, but also international law…because of such decisions by [Prime Minister] Donald Tusk’s government.”

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Roman Giertych – an MP from the ruling coalition who has led efforts in parliament to investigate the misspending of justice ministry funds in which Romanowski is implicated – also criticised the actions of prosecutors, saying that last night’s ruling was a “disgrace” for them.

“We worked for hundreds of hours on the Justice Fund case,” said Giertych. “We have been waiting for months for the motions to waive immunities. Today the main suspect is being released because the national prosecutor’s office forgot to submit a request for the waiver of immunity to the Council of Europe”.

In response to an inquiry from the Gazeta Wyborcza daily, national prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk announced that he would tender his resignation if the prosecutor general, Adam Bodnar, who also serves as justice minister, finds him responsible for the incident.

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.

Main image credit: Robert Kowalewski / Agencja Wyborcza.pl 

Agata Pyka

Agata Pyka is an assistant editor at Notes from Poland. She is a journalist and a political communication student at the University of Amsterdam. She specialises in Polish and European politics as well as investigative journalism and has previously written for Euractiv and The European Correspondent.