Ziobro's house in the crosshairs. A new application regarding the compulsory mortgage was submitted
The head of the Ministry of Justice, Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek, announced on Wednesday that a new application had been submitted regarding the compulsory mortgage of one of the properties belonging to Zbigniew Ziobro. According to him, it meets the expectations of the referendary who rejected the previous application.
In mid-November this year. The National Prosecutor's Office, whose investigative team No. 2 conducts proceedings regarding, among others, rigging competitions for multi-million grants from the Justice Fund, submitted to the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów a request to arrest the former Minister of Justice for three months. The prosecutor's office also issued decisions regarding property security, including: so-called loads forced mortgage, entered in the land and mortgage register, of two properties belonging to Ziobro: in the Skierniewice poviat (Łódź Voivodeship) and Kraków poviat (Lesser Poland Voivodeship). The security – as it was emphasized – is intended to ensure the enforceability of future court decisions, such as fines. Such a decision is approved by the court.
Radio RMF reported on Wednesday that the District Court in Rawa Mazowiecka dismissed the prosecutor's request to charge the so-called compulsory mortgage of Ziobro's house in Jeruzal (Łódź Voivodeship), and issuing the decision in this matter the court clerk pointed out “numerous errors” in this application.
Journalists asked the Minister of Justice and the Prosecutor General who were in Suwałki on Wednesday about this case. Żurek said that he is in contact with the national prosecutor, Dariusz Korneluk, from whom he knows that “an application has already been submitted that meets the expectations of the person who refused to make this entry.”
According to him, one cannot talk about failure to take into account the security, but rather about “failure to make an appropriate entry in the land and mortgage register, and that too on part of the real estate that is to be covered by this security.”
– We will definitely draw conclusions from this. I will check whether it was really an error of the person who filled out the application (…) or whether these were actually some above-standard requirements of the person who was supposed to make the entry. We know that sometimes the same regulations are interpreted differently by different people. I don't treat it as a failure, said the head of MS and PG.
He emphasized that he does not comment on the referendary's decisions, and such refusals do happen. – Everyone who has submitted various types of applications to the court knows that sometimes we come across a person who reads a specific application in a specific way – said Żurek.
The spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office, Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, told PAP on Wednesday that the prosecutor conducting the investigation assessed the decision of the Rawa court as “unfounded”, but concluded that “the efficiency of the proceedings justifies the submission of a new application.”
Therefore – informed the PK spokesman – “with the decision of December 4 this year, the prosecutor changed the decision of November 12 this year on property security, directly indicating that the security is for the benefit of the State Treasury and is aimed at fulfilling the suspect's obligation to repair the damage caused by the crime.”
In November this year the prosecutor investigating abuses at the Justice Fund ordered property security against Ziobro, including charging his real estate with a compulsory mortgage and seizing funds in his bank account.
The PK spokesman then emphasized that, in the opinion of the prosecutor's office, both conditions for the application of property security were met. Firstly, the charges against Ziobro concern acts punishable by financial sanctions, and the damage determined in the investigation – as prosecutor Nowak recalled – amounts to no less than PLN 143 million. Secondly, there is a justified fear that without security, the enforcement of a property judgment will be impossible or significantly difficult.
The Sejm waived Ziobro's parliamentary immunity and consented to his detention and possible arrest on November 7 this year in connection with alleged abuses of the Justice Fund during the PiS government. On the same day, a few hours later, the prosecutor issued a decision to present Ziobro with 26 charges and to arrest him and forcibly bring him to the Internal Security Agency.
In mid-November, the prosecutor's office submitted a request to the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów to arrest Ziobro for three months. The court hearing in this case is scheduled to take place on December 22 this year.
So far, Ziobro has been in Budapest, and recently in Brussels. He did not clearly declare that he would apply for political asylum in Hungary or that he would return to Poland. Last week, Ziobro declared that he would appear in the country within a few hours if “random assignment of cases to judges is restored”, “illegally dismissed court presidents” and “legal authority in the prosecutor's office, including the legal national prosecutor” are restored. (PAP)
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