The Warsaw District Court said on Wednesday that it had granted a request from the National Public Prosecutor’s Office and issued a European Arrest Warrant--an EU-wide system for detaining and transferring suspects between member states.
The court’s press office said the decision was made on February 17.
Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister, has been in Hungary, where he previously said he had received asylum.
Commenting on the new warrant on social media, he accused Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s camp of political persecution and called the proceedings “criminal activity” by prosecutors and the Warsaw court.
He said he would notify prosecutors, arguing the warrant was issued again on the basis of the same evidence and that the panel hearing the case had been manipulated.
The prosecution service renewed its request after an earlier European arrest warrant was overturned in December by Judge Dariusz Łubowski, then head of the court section handling international proceedings.
The earlier warrant had been issued in an investigation into the Justice Fund, a state fund formally known as the Fund for Victim Support and Post-Penitentiary Assistance, which is overseen by the justice ministry and is meant to support crime victims and people leaving prison.
Speaking to reporters at the court, Judge Anna Ptaszek, a criminal division spokeswoman for the Warsaw District Court, said the court had taken a different view of the matter than it had earlier.
She said it accepted the prosecutors' position and concluded that the arguments cited previously were not serious enough to justify canceling the warrant.
Ptaszek added that Romanowski, like any citizen, could file a complaint that prosecutors would examine.
Asked about his accusations, she said he was personally invested in the outcome and that “emotions” were likely influencing his assessment.
In mid-January, the court removed Judge Łubowski from the case, and the matter was reassigned to Judge Izabela Ledzion.
Romanowski’s defense argued she was selected without the usual random case-allocation process, while the court said the current system does not include this category of cases in the draw and changing it would require broader procedural reforms.
Romanowski is suspected of 19 crimes in the Justice Fund investigation. Prosecutors allege he took part in an organized criminal group and helped rig funding competitions.
Authorities have previously issued a wanted notice for Romanowski, and the court first approved a European arrest warrant in December 2024 after investigators said they could not locate him.
He later said he had been granted asylum in Hungary, a decision he said was upheld by a Hungarian court.
Separately, prosecutors last week asked the Warsaw District Court to issue a European arrest warrant for former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, also an opposition lawmaker, after a court approved his pretrial detention on February 5.
Ziobro is also in Hungary, according to his lawyers, and a dispute is ongoing in Poland over which judge is to ultimately hear the National Public Prosecutor’s Office request to issue a European arrest warrant for Ziobro.
(rt/gs)
Sources: IAR, PAP