WARSAW

A court in Poland’s capital issued a new European Arrest Warrant (EAW) Wednesday for fugitive Polish lawmaker Marcin Romanowski, who is living in Hungary after being granted political asylum by Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government.

Romanowski, a member of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, is accused of committing 19 criminal offenses while serving as deputy justice minister between 2019 and 2023 under then Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro.

Prosecutors allege that Romanowski was part of an “organized criminal group” that misused around €35.4 million from Poland’s Justice Fund, a state program intended to support victims of crime.

According to investigators, the funds were instead directed to projects linked to political allies of Ziobro and used to finance the purchase of Pegasus spyware, which was later allegedly deployed to monitor political opponents of the former PiS-led government.

The renewed arrest warrant follows weeks of legal wrangling in Warsaw. An earlier EAW issued in 2024 was revoked in December by a Warsaw judge, who cited Hungary’s decision to grant Romanowski political asylum as grounds for blocking extradition.

In his reasoning, the judge claimed there were “serious concerns” that Poland’s current political system amounted to a “crypto-dictatorship,” a statement that prompted backlash and was rejected outright by the government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The case has become entangled in a broader dispute over judicial independence in Poland. Critics of PiS argue that the party politicized the courts during its eight years in power by promoting loyalist judges and weakening institutional checks on the executive.

Those judicial changes placed Poland in prolonged conflict with the European Union, which froze billions of euros in funding over concerns about democratic backsliding and rule-of-law violations. Tusk’s centrist coalition, which took office in late 2023, has pledged to reverse PiS-era reforms and restore judicial independence.

Romanowski’s parliamentary immunity was lifted in 2024, allowing prosecutors to formally charge him and seek pre-trial detention. A Polish court approved his arrest, but the lawmaker fled to Hungary, where Orban’s government granted him political asylum later that year.

Orban’s ruling Fidesz party has long been ideologically aligned with PiS, with both parties opposing what they describe as excessive EU interference in national affairs, particularly on judicial oversight and migration policy.

Last month, Hungary also granted asylum to Ziobro, who is suspected of committing 26 offenses while in office. Polish prosecutors have likewise sought an EAW for the former justice minister.

Whether Hungary will comply with the new warrants remains uncertain, underscoring growing tensions between Warsaw and Budapest over rule-of-law enforcement within the EU.