Prosecutor rejects Romanowski's bid to lift arrest in Justice Fund case

Prosecutor rejects arrest-lifting request

Poland's National Prosecution Service has rejected a defense request to lift or modify the pre-trial detention of former deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski, a PiS MP suspected in the Justice Fund affair. The decision, dated August 6, was confirmed on August 11 by prosecution spokesman Przemysław Nowak. The defense had also sought partial dismissal of the investigation.

The prosecutor found that the evidence continues to show a high probability that Romanowski committed the charged acts, an assessment previously shared by two courts. Nowak stated that the pre-trial detention measure applies to the suspect in the case as a whole, not separately to each charge.

Defense relied on Ziobro ruling

Romanowski's defense attorney, Bartosz Lewandowski, built the request on a July ruling by the Warsaw District Court concerning former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the main suspect in the same case. The court found that the extradition request could cover 19 of 26 charges against Ziobro, while 7 charges showed insufficient probability of commission. Lewandowski argued that some of those 7 charges overlap with Romanowski's, and that the evidence does not support a high probability for those acts.

The prosecutor did not accept this reasoning, stating that the preventive measure applies to the entire case and the suspect's procedural situation, not to individual charges examined separately. Therefore, doubts about individual acts do not automatically require lifting the entire measure.

Flight risk and ongoing manhunt

The prosecution cited three special grounds for maintaining the arrest: risk of tampering with evidence, the severe penalty the suspect faces, and above all the fact that Romanowski has been fleeing and hiding from law enforcement abroad for over a year and a half. Romanowski left Poland at the end of 2024 and first stayed in Hungary, where he received political asylum from Viktor Orbán's government. After the change of government in Budapest, with new prime minister Peter Magyar announcing extradition, Romanowski left Hungary. Media reports placed him in Serbia and Croatia, though his current whereabouts remain unknown.

A European Arrest Warrant has been in effect since February 2026. In June, the defense requested its lifting, but on July 10 the Warsaw District Court rejected that request.

Defense plans court appeal

Lewandowski told Fakt that the prosecution's decision was predictable and that he will file a complaint with the court once he receives the formal ruling.

I have not yet received the formal ruling, but I will certainly file a complaint against this decision to the court.

Parallel case against Ziobro

Ziobro, who served as justice minister and was Romanowski's superior, is currently in the United States. He announced his presence there in May 2026 and reportedly entered on a journalist visa, having flown to the US from Milan. Justice minister Waldemar Żurek has sent a request to US authorities for Ziobro's temporary arrest and extradition. The National Prosecution Service stated that the charges covered by the request meet the requirement of dual criminality, one of the bases for extradition.

Both Romanowski and Ziobro deny the charges and consider the case politically motivated. The Justice Fund investigation, led by the National Prosecution Service, has been ongoing since February 2024 and encompasses over a dozen threads. Charges against Romanowski include participation in an organized criminal group led by Ziobro, official crimes, and rigging competitions for Justice Fund money.