2024-09-30 14:40 update: 2024-09-30, 14:50
Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
Prosecutor General and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar requested the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Sunday to revoke the immunity of Marcin Romanowski, a former Polish deputy justice minister, the National Prosecutor's Office (PK) has written on the X platform.
The PK added that the next session of PACE, during which the request could be considered, would begin on Monday.
Romanowski, a politician from the junior coalition partner of Law and Justice (PiS), Sovereign Poland, an MP in the PiS parliamentary caucus, and a deputy justice minister in the previous PiS government was detained on July 15 in connection with the ongoing investigation into the Justice Fund case.
The next day, the Warsaw-Mokotow District Court released Romanowski due to his PACE immunity. The National Prosecutor's Office then filed a complaint against this decision. On September 27, the Warsaw Regional Court upheld the decision of the district court.
Following the verdict, Przemyslaw Nowak, a spokesman for the PK, announced that in the coming days prosecutors would request PACE to revoke Romanowski's immunity.
The PK is investigating illegal spending from the Justice Fund, originally intended to help victims of crimes.
Romanowski, who in 2019-2023 was a deputy justice minister in charge of the fund, is facing allegations of granting unlawful subsidies from the fund, and participation in a criminal organisation. The allegations amount to over PLN 112.1 million (EUR 26.2 mln). (PAP)
wpb/jch
