The international law enforcement agency Interpol has refused to issue a Red Notice for the detention of Polish a Conservative (PiS) politician who has claimed asylum in Hungary.
Marcin Romanowski fled after he was charged with allegedly defrauding public funds and participating in an organised crime group.
Interpol has not disclosed the specific reasons for its decision of April 22 regarding the issue, citing confidentiality. It merely stated: “a Red Notice will not be published for the suspect via Interpol’s channels.”
Romanowski told independent Conservative broadcaster TV Republika Interpol’s refusal constituted a “red card for [Polish Prime Minister Donald] Tusk” and marked “a humiliation of the Polish State for pursuing someone who has been granted political asylum in a EU member state”.
According to PiS MP Marcin Warchoł, Interpol’s decision indicated that it believed the Polish Government was targeting opposition figures for political reasons.
“Interpol makes such refusals based on Article 3 of its Constitution, which strictly prohibits the organisation from engaging in matters of a political, military, religious, or racial character. It’s hard to imagine that military, religious, or racial grounds apply here,” Warchoł told news portal Niezależna.pl.
“The international police organisation has recognised the pursuit of … Romanowski as politically motivated,” he added.
Romanowski, who had served as deputy justice minister in the previous PiS government, left Poland in December last year. Since then he has been in Hungary where he successfully applied for asylum after the government in Budapest accepted his argument that he could not expect a fair trial in Poland.
The PiS MP had earlier in 2024 been accused by public prosecutors of having allegedly misappropriated funds from the Justice Fund, a financial instrument designed to help victims of crime, to finance political campaigning of his party and of having participated in an organised crime group consisting of officials in his ministry.
Romanowski denied the charges, arguing that the disbursement of resources from the Justice Fund took place according to the regulations. He said the charges against him and his colleagues were politically motivated as part of the Tusk government’s declared drive to bring to account officials from the previous PiS administration.
The Polish parliament voted to lift Romanowski’s immunity in June of last year. The public prosecutors then failed to obtain a court order for his detention soon after as the MP had additional immunity by being a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
The Polish Government proceeded to petition the Council of Europe to waive Romanowski’s immunity and succeeded in doing so in October last year. It managed to secure a court order to detain the MP only to find out he had already left Poland for Hungary.
Hungary’s granting of political asylum for Romanowski also led to a spat between the Polish and Hungarian governments.
Poland argued that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s administration was acting in a hostile manner, while Budapest said it would grant asylum to those it felt were being persecuted for political reasons.
The two countries had developed close relations during the last PiS government (2015-2023) when both Budapest and Warsaw had jointly questioned European Union policies on migration, the Green Deal.
Both were also accused of rule-of-law violations by Brussels.
