Marcin Romanowski, who was held yesterday just days after he was stripped of the immunity that Polish lawmakers normally enjoy, is at the center of a probe into an alleged multi-million euro slush fund, amid claims that that public money was used for purposes including financing political campaign events.
Now the question is how far will this go: will the big guns of the previous administration – rather than relatively small fry –face charges? And could Jarosław Kaczyński – the leader of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party and the most powerful man in Poland until his party was ejected by voters last October – be brought before a court?
Picking up the pace
When it came to power later last year, the new Polish government headed by centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk vowed to hold its hard-right predecessors to account.
The accusations leveled by critics against the nationalists who ruled Poland for eight years were grave: eroding democracy, forcing judges – whose independence is written into the constitution – to toe the then-ruling party’s line, fostering endemic cronyism, and turning the public media into a propaganda machine.
More than half a year after Tusk took office, observers have been asking what he’s done to clean out what he described as an Augean stable replete with “evil, lies, thievery and corruption”.
The answer, have critics said, was not that much. But now with the detention of ex-deputy justice minister Romanowski, the efforts of Tusk’s government are picking up pace.
Moving into an even higher gear, ten criminal proceedings that were discontinued or not pursued by the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw under the former government have now been re-opened, private broadcaster RMF24 reported on Tuesday. Some of these involve the Justice Fund.
What is the Justice Fund?
The Justice Fund is a special off-budget funding mechanism set up to help victims of crime.
Lawmakers from the current ruling coalition say 25 million zlotys (€5.9 million) from the fund was spent on Pegasus spyware that was used by the previous administration against its political rivals.
Some media reports have also accused former justice ministry officials of using the fund to curry favor among voters for the hardline Sovereign Poland party, which for eight years was a junior coalition partner in governments headed by the larger conservative Law and Justice party.
Some of the money allegedly went into buying fire engines or equipment for village halls in conservative-minded rural constituencies.
Investigators suspect that, among other irregularities, 200 million zlotys (€46 million) was sunk into the election campaign run by Sovereign Poland, which is headed by ex-justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro.
Who's been charged?
Eleven people have so far been charged in a probe into the Justice Fund, while four have been detained. In addition to Romanowski, former deputy minister of justice Michał Woś, a Sovereign Poland lawmaker, has also been stripped of his parliamentary immunity.
Woś is accused by prosecutors of misusing money from the Justice Fund to buy the Pegasus system. He denies any wrongdoing and has said that Pegasus was used to fight crime.
Among the 11 allegations leveled against Romanowski, it is claimed that around 112 million złotys were funneled to the formerly ruling right-wing coalition, and also to the Catholic church.
It is also alleged that a further 200 million złotys were sunk into the election campaign of Sovereign Poland, a Catholic nationalist party.
The most serious charge is that Romanowski was part of “an organized criminal group”. He has denied the accusations made against him, and has declared himself the target of a political witch hunt.
Angling for the big fish?
The current justice minister, Adam Bodnar, said on Monday it was possible further charges could be pressed against other figures linked to the previous government, but that no decision had been taken yet.
The authorities could now be angling for the people at the very top of the former right-wing administration, including ex-justice minister Ziobro.
An even bigger catch would be PiS chief Jarosław Kaczyński.
Many would like to see Kaczyński hauled up before a court, amid allegations that he was aware of strange payouts from the Justice Fund but never officially informed prosecutors.
However, if charges were brought against Kaczyński, and especially if he were arrested, his legions of supporters could take to the streets in mass protests, further sharpening a bitter political divide in Poland and potentially even destabilizing the country.
Misuse of the Justice Fund is a less serious accusation than claims that the former right-wing administration eroded the independence of the judicial system as a whole, thus undermining the foundations of liberal democracy.
But if charges of inappropriately using public money are brought against Ziobro, or if charges are leveled against Kaczyński, critics of the former hardline government would say that at last some justice is finally being done.
