{"id":14896,"date":"2026-08-14T16:06:32","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:06:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/?p=14896"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:06:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T13:06:32","slug":"ex-minister-dodges-tusk-arrest-hiding-in-transnistria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/ex-minister-dodges-tusk-arrest-hiding-in-transnistria\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Minister Dodges Tusk Arrest, Hiding in Transnistria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marcin Romanowski<\/strong>, who served under former Law and Justice (PiS) justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro<\/strong>, sent a letter from Tiraspol, the capital of Moldova’s separatist Transnistrian territory, requesting safe conduct to face questioning while remaining at liberty.<\/p>\n

The Warsaw Regional Court received the document on August 4. Romanowski, who fled Poland in 2024 but remains a sitting member of parliament for PiS, claimed he is staying at a specific address in Tiraspol and expressed willingness to appear before prosecutors on condition he not be detained during proceedings.<\/p>\n

Przemys\u0142aw Nowak<\/strong>, spokesman for Poland’s National Public Prosecutor’s Office, confirmed on August 12 that prosecutors had received the personally signed letter. However, Nowak noted that authorities cannot verify with certainty that Romanowski actually sent it, describing the handwritten signature as similar but not yet subjected to expert analysis. The prosecution has only Romanowski’s own word regarding his current location.<\/p>\n

A judge assigned to the case on August 7 requested the full case files from prosecutors to review both Romanowski’s application for safe conduct and the prosecution’s evidence.<\/p>\n

Justice Fund Scandal<\/h2>\n

Romanowski faces serious charges stemming from an investigation into alleged irregularities involving Poland’s Justice Fund, a state fund administered by the justice ministry to assist crime victims and finance crime prevention initiatives.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege he participated in an organized criminal group and manipulated grant competitions to ensure selected organizations received public money. The charges also include steering public funds toward initiatives supporting political allies in elections. The alleged criminal group reportedly consisted of ministry officials, and Romanowski is not accused of personally taking any money.<\/p>\n

His former superior, Ziobro, faces similar charges. Both men have had their parliamentary immunity stripped, and both left Poland before parliament voted to enable their arrest and temporary detention.<\/p>\n

Denial of Wrongdoing<\/h2>\n

Both Romanowski and Ziobro vigorously deny the allegations, insisting all proper procedures were followed in fund allocation decisions and that money was used by recipient organizations for purposes specified in grant agreements.<\/p>\n

Regarding accusations of directing funds to areas where their political allies ran for parliament, they maintain no money went toward individual campaigns. They argue that actions such as purchasing fire engines for certain municipalities do not favor voters of any particular party.<\/p>\n

Polish courts have nonetheless approved government prosecutors’ requests for detention, ruling that holding the men is necessary to prevent absconding or interference with the investigation.<\/p>\n

Immunity Battle and Flight<\/h2>\n

Romanowski’s case has followed a complicated legal path. Poland’s parliament lifted his domestic immunity in July 2024, and he was detained on July 15. That detention lasted barely 24 hours because prosecutors had failed to account for the international immunity he held as a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).<\/p>\n

PACE waived that immunity on October 2, 2024, following a request from then-justice minister Adam Bodnar<\/strong>, clearing the path for arrest. Before a court could confirm the arrest warrant, Romanowski fled Poland and claimed asylum in Hungary under then-prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Safe Conduct Request<\/h2>\n

Under Polish criminal law, safe conduct allows a suspect or defendant abroad to return to Poland without being detained in the case covered by the arrangement, provided court-set conditions are met. These typically include appearing when summoned and refraining from obstructing the investigation.<\/p>\n

The current liberal government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk<\/strong> has pursued aggressive prosecutions against former PiS officials, a campaign critics describe as politically motivated persecution of the previous conservative administration.<\/p>\n

With information from Brussels Signal<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former Polish deputy justice minister facing corruption charges has informed a Warsaw court he is residing in Russia-backed Transnistria and seeks safe conduct to face questioning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":14894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[122],"tags":[6393,4768,11671,1852,937,11670,2262],"nfg_topic":[134],"class_list":["post-14896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-corruption-charges","tag-law-and-justice","tag-marcin-romanowski","tag-moldova","tag-poland","tag-transnistria","tag-warsaw","nfg_topic-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14902,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14896\/revisions\/14902"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14896"},{"taxonomy":"nfg_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsfire.gr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/nfg_topic?post=14896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}