The chairman of the department, which received the request from the prosecutor’s office regarding the panel appointed in the arrest case of MP Marcin Romanowski, stated that there are no grounds for changing the previous orders in this case – Judge Anna Ptaszek of the Warsaw District Court told PAP. Therefore, the prosecutor’s office of Adam Bodnar failed to remove Judge Przemysław Dziwański from the case.
On September 27, the Warsaw District Court will hear the prosecutor’s appeal against the decision of the Warsaw-Mokotów District Court, which on July 16 did not approve the arrest of MP Romanowski due to his immunity from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
A week ago, the State Prosecutor’s Office announced that the prosecutor of the PK’s investigation team No. 2 submitted a request to the President of the Warsaw District Court – pursuant to Article 47b paragraphs 1 and 3 of the Act on the Organisation of Common Courts – to change the composition of the court in the person of the registrar, Judge Przemysław Dziwański. The reasons for submitting the request were – as stated by the Prosecutor’s Office – the occurrence of a long-standing obstacle and the inability to hear the case in the current composition of the Warsaw District Court.
When can an occupancy change take place?
Article 47b paragraph 1 of the Law on the Organisation of Common Courts provides that “a change in the composition of the court may only take place if it is impossible to hear the case in its current composition or if there is a long-term obstacle to hearing the case in its current composition.” In turn, in accordance with paragraph 3 of this article, decisions in this regard are taken by the president of the court or a judge authorised by him.
As Judge Ptaszek, spokeswoman for criminal matters at the Warsaw District Court, told PAP on Wednesday, “the president of the 10th department, who received the PK’s request, issued an order on Tuesday stating that there were no grounds to change the previous orders.”
The request of the National Prosecutor’s Office of 21 August was not accepted. The deadline for investigating the complaint has been maintained at 27 September and the decision will be taken by the originally composed panel of three persons.
– Bartosz Lewandowski, Romanowski’s defender, announced this on Platform X on Wednesday.
Complaint from the public prosecutor’s office
The Warsaw District Court announced on August 14 that the hearing on the PK complaint against the refusal to arrest Romanowski would take place on September 27. The verdict – based on the decision of the chair of the 10th Criminal Division, Judge Monika Jankowska – will be pronounced by three judges: Przemysław Dziwański, Wanda Jankowska-Bebeszko and Leszek Parzyszek.
In addition, the court reported that President Jankowska had decided to let the three judges decide independently on the composition of the judges in this case.
On 12 August, the same court announced that Judge Dziwański had been excluded from the three-member panel charged with deciding the Romanowski case. The Prosecutor’s Office requested his exclusion on 2 August, justifying that he had been nominated by the improperly formed National Council of the Judiciary, and that he also signed a list in support of the National Council of the Judiciary for the former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice. Justice, Łukasz Piebiak. This request was rejected by decision of 7 August. However, on 12 August, the decision to exclude Dziwański was made by Judge Krzysztof Chmielewski, while considering the application of Judge Aleksandra Rusin-Batko, who asked to exclude her from the jury.
Therefore, the legal problem – which Judge Ptaszek described as a Gordian knot in mid-August – is the current functioning of two contradictory decisions concerning Judge Dziwański that are legally in circulation. Both are final and there is no further appeal possible. “The judges who have to decide on the arrest of MP Romanowski will have to decide independently on the composition of the jury in this case,” she said.
Romanowski – a politician of Sovereign Poland, MP of the PiS club, who in 2019-2023 was deputy head of the Ministry of Justice supervising the Justice Fund – is suspected, among other things, of setting up competitions for money from this fund. The charges against him include an amount of more than PLN 112,126,000 zlotys.
In the complaint, the Prosecutor’s Office claims that the legal analysis shows that the scope of immunity protection for Romanowski in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe does not cover the acts he is accused of. Investigators also announced that if the Warsaw court upholds the decision of the Court of First Instance to refuse to arrest Romanowski on the grounds of the immunity of the Union of the Council of Europe, it will request that the politician’s immunity be revoked.
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yes/PAP
Source: wPolityce