Polish authorities have admitted that it was legally “unprecedented” for an additional European nation to grant asylum to a fugitive needed underneath a European arrest warrant.
The Hungarian authorities on Thursday granted political asylum to former Polish justice minister and present PiS MP Marcin Romanowski, who is needed in Poland for alleged corruption throughout his time as a minister within the earlier PiS authorities.
Polish authorities have been trying to find Romanowski since final week, after a Polish court docket authorized a request to put the MP in pre-trial detention. After an unsuccessful search, the prosecutor’s workplace issued a European arrest warrant for Romanowski citing proof that he was overseas.
Hours earlier than Romanowski’s lawyer introduced that the lawmaker had been granted asylum in Hungary, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned towards Budapest making “unusual choices.”
“If Budapest have been to make any choice incompatible with European legislation, resembling granting political asylum or ignoring the European arrest warrant, Viktor Orbán could be the one in a precarious place, not me,” Tusk mentioned.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski mentioned he thought of Budapest’s choice a “hostile act” in a put up on X.
Hungarian chief Viktor Orbán largely evaded questions in regards to the transfer as he left the European Council summit on Thursday, telling reporters {that a} “authorized course of” was underway.
Romanowski served as deputy justice minister from 2019 to 2023 underneath the previous nationalist and conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS).
Prosecutors allege he dedicated 11 crimes in his position as supervisor of the so-called Justice Fund, a pool of cash devoted to serving to crime victims. He is accused of being a part of an organized prison group that awarded contracts financed by the fund to chose bidders who didn’t meet the necessities, defrauding the Polish state of greater than 107 million euros.
Romanowski’s lawyer, Bartosz Lewandowski, argues that his case is “politically motivated” as a result of it was introduced underneath the federal government of Tusk, whose Civic Platform celebration beat PiS within the 2023 elections.
“Marcin Romanowski acknowledged that he couldn’t rely on a good trial in Poland because of the political involvement of some judges,” Lewandowski mentioned. He added that his consumer could be prepared to face the fees in the event that they have been introduced ahead “as soon as requirements of the rule of legislation are restored in Poland”.
It is uncommon for an additional European nation to conform to grant asylum to a fugitive needed on the premise of a European arrest warrant.
Polish prosecutor’s spokeswoman Anna Adamiak admitted that the case is “unprecedented” and had not been foreseen when the regulation was drafted.
He added that even when Romanowski was granted worldwide safety in Hungary, “this might not forestall Hungary from pursuing the process referring to this European arrest warrant.”
Romanowski just isn’t the one PiS politician needed by the Prosecutor’s Office for crimes throughout his mandate.
Prosecutors are searching for to press prices towards a sequence of ministers, together with former deputy overseas minister Piotr Wawrzyk, on prices of handing out 1000’s of labor visas to Poland in trade for cash, in a scandal that has tarnished the anti-immigration celebration’s repute within the run-up to the final presidency. elections.
ANNOUNCEMENTPiS claims the brand new authorities is utilizing the justice system to unfairly assault the opposition.
