The Profeto Foundation process. Indictment and dispute over court impartiality in the context of PiS
2026-01-28 17:55
publication
2026-01-28 17:55
In the District Court in Warsaw, the prosecutor presented an indictment regarding a subsidy to the Profeto Foundation, which opened the court proceedings in this case. Previously, defense lawyers for the accused, including priest Michał Olszewski, filed motions to exclude the referee judge, pointing to doubts as to her impartiality, which, however, does not suspend the proceedings.
The next hearing in this case is scheduled for February 10.
The referee judge in the three-person adjudicating panel, including lay judges, is Justyna Koska-Janusz. After submitting applications for its exclusion, the judge announced that she would send them to the president of the court's division for further processing.
She noted that submitting such applications would not obstruct court proceedings. – In the event of the exclusion of a referee judge, all activities that were performed with the participation of the judge for whom such a request was submitted (for exclusion – PAP) and such a request was granted, are considered ineffective – added Koska-Janusz and asked the prosecutor to present the indictment.
The accusation presented by prosecutor Ryszard Pęgal from the investigative team no. 2 of the National Prosecutor's Office against Fr. Michał Olszewski, as well as former MS officials – Urszula D. and Karolina Ś. (formerly K.), concerns the activities of the Profeto Foundation. According to the prosecutor's office, it received over PLN 66 million from the SF (of the granted over PLN 98 million), even though it did not meet the formal and substantive requirements. With this money, Profeto launched the “Archipelago – islands free from violence” investment in Warsaw, but the prosecutor's office estimates that the method of its implementation differed from the objectives of the fund, such as post-penitentiary assistance or assistance to crime victims.
In connection with this case, the prosecutor accused the priest and two former officials of participating in an organized criminal group aimed at committing crimes against property. The accusation also covers abuse of powers, failure to fulfill duties and certifying untruths in documents, and these actions led to significant damage to the property of the State Treasury. In the prosecutor's opinion, these crimes were intended to achieve personal and financial benefits, also for other people.
Moreover, in the indictment against Fr. Olszewski was accused of the so-called money laundering. According to the prosecutor's office, he organized a sham transaction: the TISO company, building “Archipelago”, paid over PLN three million for the lease of part of the property belonging to the Congregation of the Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (sercanie), and then these funds – through him – were transferred to the account of the Profeto Foundation. According to investigators, this circulation of money was intended to conceal their criminal origins from the Justice Fund.
The prosecutor also accused other officials – Marcin M. and Wojciech Z. – including: for certifying untruths and inflating the scores in the competition documentation, as well as Monika G. for exceeding her powers in order to illegally award a subsidy.
Before presenting the indictment, a motion to disqualify the judge was presented by, among others, one of the priest's defenders, attorney Michał Skwarzyński, who was supported by other defense lawyers of the accused. As one of the arguments, he pointed to Koska-Janusz's involvement on one side of the political dispute against the former Minister of Justice, PiS MP Zbigniew Ziobro. According to the defense attorney, this undermines the impartiality of the referee in the case – as he put it – against Ziobro (also covered by the investigation regarding the Justice Fund).
Among the reservations regarding Koska-Janusz was her appointment to the Profeto Foundation's case by drawing lots, which – according to the attorney. Skwarzyński – was allegedly disrupted on purpose last year (including thanks to the then Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar), so that the case could be taken over exclusively by Koska-Janusz as a delegated judge. This, according to the defense, also undermines the correctness of the court's staff.
The defense lawyer also questioned the participation of the newly appointed lay judges in this case, pointing out, among other things, that the request to exclude them submitted a week ago has not yet been recognized. Additionally, attorney Skwarzyński raised doubts as to the authorization of the prosecutors, related to the dispute over the status of the head of the PK, who – according to him – is Prosecutor Dariusz Barski, and not Prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk.
The accusation covers the period when the Ministry of Justice, to which the FS reports, was headed by Ziobro, currently a PiS MP. The former minister, who has been staying in Budapest since December 22 last year. is under international protection by the Hungarian authorities, who recognized that he was at risk of political persecution. On February 5, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów is to consider the application for the arrest of the former minister, who was accused by the prosecutor's office of, among others, leading an organized criminal group intended to use the Justice Fund in an unlawful manner. The decision to allocate money from the fund was also made by former deputy minister of justice and PiS MP Marcin Romanowski, also a suspect in this investigation, who, like Ziobro, is under international protection in Hungary. (PAP)
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PiS will submit a notification regarding the rigging of court proceedings
The PiS club will submit a notification to the prosecutor's office regarding “fixing court processes in the allocation of judges and lay judges” in the cases of former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice and PiS MP Marcin Romanowski and subsidies to the Profeto Foundation from the Justice Fund – said the head of the PiS club, Mariusz Błaszczak.
On Wednesday, in a post on the X platform, Błaszczak emphasized that PiS will not allow “judicial rigging” or “scandalous manipulations in the allocation of judges and lay judges” in cases involving former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice and PiS MP Marcin Romanowski and the Profeto Foundation. In his opinion, in the Romanowski case “a convenient judge was manually selected instead of drawing lots”, while in the case of Fr. Olszewski and former officials “were replaced outside the law.”
Last December The District Court in Warsaw revoked the European Arrest Warrant (EAW) against Marcin Romanowski issued as part of an investigation into the activities of the Justice Fund during the times of this party. This decision was made by judge Dariusz Łubowski, who in January this year the court excluded him from the case after the prosecutor's office submitted a new application for the use of an EAW and a request to remove the judge. The EAW case against Romanowski was brought to judge Izabela Ledzion.
Last week in the District Court in Warsaw, defense lawyers for the defendants regarding subsidies to the Profeto Foundation, including: priest Michał Olszewski and former officials of the Ministry of Justice, questioned the correctness of the adjudicating panel due to those newly appointed in January this year. jurors. Justyna Koska-Janusz, the referee judge presiding over the trial, did not agree with this request and stated that the issue of lay judges had already been resolved because the lay judges appointed last year were replaced by lay judges from the reserve list.
According to Błaszczak, the actions taken in both cases “are a clear violation of the law and an abuse of power.” “Laws and regulations in Poland require the random assignment of judges and lay judges to cases to guarantee the impartiality of the court. (…) The justice system has been placed under the dictation of third parties,” we read in the entry on X.
In a press conference organized on Wednesday, PiS MP Michał Wójcik clarified that the PiS parliamentary club would submit a report on the possibility of committing crimes to the District Prosecutor's Office in Warsaw. In his opinion, there were irregularities in both proceedings with a “strong political context”.
In the context of the Romanowski case, Wójcik argued that the current authorities attacked the judge who revoked the EAW against the former deputy head of the Ministry of Justice, after which – as he added – another application for the application of the order was submitted. – In such a situation, there are regulations stating that there should be a draw (of a judge – PAP), but the drawing was abandoned without a legal basis and it was stated that the case could be dealt with by the judge on duty. Even though there was a list of judges on duty, the person who was supposed to decide the EAW case against Minister Romanowski was replaced at the last moment – he noted.
Referring to the case of the Profeto Foundation, Wójcik said that “everything seems to be a set-up, manipulated and rigged, because the panels of judges are supposed to be what the authorities want, not what the algorithm wants.”
Earlier, in a post on “In their place, two other people were 'manually' selected. In other words, the composition of the court was changed arbitrarily, without a new draw, which is contrary to elementary principles,” we read on X.
Romanowski is suspected of committing 19 crimes in the investigation into irregularities in the Justice Fund. The prosecutor's office accuses him of, among other things, participation in an organized criminal group and rigging competitions for money from this fund. Because the services could not find the politician, after the court's decision to arrest him, an arrest warrant was issued for him, and in December 2024, the District Court in Warsaw, at the request of the prosecutor's office, issued an EAW against him. Later, the politician announced that he had been granted political asylum in Hungary. in mid-January, Romanowski's defense attorney – Bartosz Lewandowski – submitted a request to the District Court in Warsaw to exclude Judge Izabela Ledzion from the case of reconsidering the EAW application against his client. As he argued, it was determined without drawing lots.
An indictment regarding a subsidy to the Profeto Foundation – the first in the case of financial abuse at the Justice Fund – against six people, including Fr. Olszewski, was brought to the District Court in Warsaw in February 2025. The prosecutor's accusation concerns one of many threads of the investigation related to the activities of the Profeto Foundation. This foundation received over PLN 66 million from the SF (and PLN 98 million was granted), even though – as assessed by the prosecutor's office – it did not meet the formal and substantive requirements to receive the money.
The prosecutor's office accused Fr. Olszewski, who managed the Profeto Foundation as its president, among others. participation in an organized criminal group aimed at committing crimes against property and causing large-scale damage to the property of the State Treasury, as well as the so-called money laundering. Apart from the priest The Olszewskis were accused of, among others, former officials of the Ministry of Justice, Urszula D. and Karolina K., who were responsible for granting these funds and had with Fr. Olszewski act together and in consultation. (PAP)
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