Former President of the Constitutional Tribunal Jerzy Stępień said in an interview with PAP that the prosecutor’s office did not have to turn to the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe regarding Marcin Romanowski’s immunity.
PiS MP, politician of Sovereign Poland, former Deputy Minister of Justice Marcin Romanowski, who was detained in connection with the investigation into the Justice Fund and heard eleven charges at the prosecutor’s office, was released on Tuesday before midnight by the decision of the Warsaw-Mokotów District Court. The reason was the immunity of a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
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The public prosecutor’s office is under fire
There was criticism of the prosecutor’s office, including from politicians of the ruling coalition. Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said on Thursday that he expects the National Prosecutor’s Office staff to draw conclusions from the “mistakes made”.
However, according to Stępień, the public prosecutor’s office acted appropriately.
She had the right not to address the issue of this immunity, because the Council of Europe guidelines clearly state that this immunity applies only to the statements of the Member of Parliament and in voting matters. So that there are no irregularities that would prevent him from exercising his mandate calmly and independently
– he judged.
Stępień stated that the guidelines regarding the immunities of PACE members were issued because there were cases of abuse and even bribery.
Therefore, the regulations define the possibility of exercising immunity quite narrowly
– added.
He recalled that the Minister of Justice stated that he would ask PACE to interpret the scope of this immunity. He also noted that “PACE immunity is not very common in practice.”
Korneluk’s position
Neo-national prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk said on Wednesday that the Prosecutor’s Office respects the court’s decision to refuse to apply pre-trial detention to MP Romanowski. He said that before submitting the request for pre-trial detention and, earlier, the request to the Sejm for permission to bring criminal liability before the court, the Prosecutor’s Office considered whether Romanowski’s membership of PACE makes him “covered by a second immunity.” He added that “for this reason, two legal opinions were requested, which concluded that Romanowski was not covered by such immunity.” He said the Ombudsman also agreed with this position.
Korneluk announced that he would provide the PACE president with information about Romanowski’s case and that he did not rule out that prosecutors would ask the Assembly to lift his immunity.
Romanowski, in turn, announced that he and his lawyer would file charges against the people who made the decisions about his detention.
If, according to Jerzy Stępień, the prosecutor’s office acted correctly, why did it suffer such a spectacular failure, which is also admitted by representatives of circles that are generally critical of the United Right?
gah/PAP
Source: wPolityce