The National Prosecutor's Office announced on Thursday on the X platform that Patryk M. alias Wielki Bu was handed over to the Polish side by the German authorities on the basis of a European Arrest Warrant. The institution of EAW entered into force in Polish criminal law on November 6, 2006.
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During the presidential campaign, the media and some politicians criticized Karol Nawrocki for contacts with “Big Bu” as a “member of a gang of pimps”. Patryk M. was detained on September 12 at the airport in Hamburg, from where – as the police reported at the time – he was planning to go to the United Arab Emirates.
The man was wanted with a European Arrest Warrant. He was wanted for an investigation conducted by the National Prosecutor's Office in Lublin. It concerns an organized criminal group involved in drug trafficking and smuggling.
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In the past, the European Arrest Warrant was issued in cases that outraged the whole of Poland. In December 2024, the District Court received an application for a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) against PiS MP and former deputy minister Marcin Romanowski, who is a suspect in the investigation into the spending of funds from the Justice Fund.
In October 2023, the police in the United Arab Emirates, supported by the Polish Special Search Group, detained Sebastian M.. The man is suspected of causing a fatal accident on the A1, in which a family of three died, and an EAW was also issued for them.
A European Arrest Warrant was also issued – in September 2024 – for Łukasz Ż., who was driving a car that hit a Ford driving correctly in the middle lane at high speed. As a result of the accident, a 37-year-old man who was driving with his wife and two children died. The perpetrator of the tragic accident fled to Germany, where he was finally arrested.
Matters that shocked Poland. European Arrest Warrant in action
The European Arrest Warrant (EAW) is a legal mechanism that allows a wanted person to be arrested and transferred from one EU Member State to anotherfor the purpose of conducting criminal proceedings or executing a prison sentence.
The mechanism covers all European Union Member States and aims to simplify and accelerate the procedures for transferring persons.
It is based on the principle of mutual recognition of court decisions, which makes it an effective and quick tool compared to traditional extradition procedures.
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The introduction of the EAW significantly accelerated the process of transferring persons. The decision to execute the order must be made within 60 days of arrest and, if the person consents to surrender, within 10 days. Additionally, 32 categories of crimes, such as terrorism and human trafficking, no longer require double criminality verification, meaning the act does not have to be a crime in both countries.
EU member states cannot refuse to surrender their own citizens unless they take over the execution of the judgment. In some cases, the executing state may require guarantees, for example that a person sentenced to life imprisonment will have the right to have their sentence reconsidered or that it will be possible to serve the sentence in their country of nationality.
