2024-08-30 15:03 update: 2024-08-30, 15:05
Photo: PAP/Paweł Supernak
Justice Minister Adam Bodnar has announced that issuing a European arrest warrant (EAW) will be the next step in the prosecution of Michal K., the former president of Poland's Government Strategic Reserves Agency (RARS) and an associate of Mateusz Morawiecki, the head of the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.
According to the National Prosecutor's Office, in the course of the investigation concerning irregularities in RARS, evidence was obtained which made it possible to draw up charges of taking part in an organised criminal group, exceeding powers and failing to fulfil duties in order to gain financial benefits against two persons - Michal K. and Pawel Sz.
In order to initiate a search for the suspects, last week prosecutors submitted motions to a district court in Katowice (southern Poland) to apply preventive measures in the form of temporary arrest warrants being issued against them.
Bodnar addressed the case while speaking to publicly-owned Polskie Radio 24 on Friday.
"Further prosecution will be carried out. Regarding this issue, the public prosecutor’s office must stay the course, which in this case, means the European arrest warrant," he said.
At issue is a case widely reported by Polish media concerning cooperation between RARS headed by K. with the Red is Bad company owned by Sz.
The news website Onet was first to reveal the affair. In one of its publications, Onet wrote that, the previous PiS government led by Morawiecki, "entered into a peculiar alliance with Pawel Sz., the owner of a clothing company called Red is Bad, aimed at embezzling public money at a scale not seen before."
Onet said that over the course of three years transfers amounting to PLN 500 million (EUR 117 million) were made to Sz's bank account, and the contracts between him and Poland's RARS headed by K. were signed without conducting a tender. (PAP)
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