The District Court in Rawa Mazowiecka refused to register a “compulsory mortgage” on the home of Zbigniew Ziobro, as requested by the National Prosecutor’s Office (PK). The court indicated that the application contained numerous formal errors. At noon, it was reported that the prosecution had already filed another request in the case.
The decision was reported by the portal rmf24.pl.
In November, the National Prosecutor’s Office (PK) petitioned the court to enter a “compulsory mortgage” into the land and mortgage register of Zbigniew Ziobro’s home in Jeruzal (Skierniewice County), in the amount of over 143 million PLN. This was intended as a security for funds to cover the alleged penalties that could potentially be imposed on the former minister of justice.
However, the District Court in Rawa Mazowiecka – specifically, a court clerk in the Land and Mortgage Register Division – rejected the prosecution’s request, pointing to numerous formal deficiencies.
What errors were involved? According to rmf24.pl, these included the lack of a description of the claim, the absence of a clear indication of the mortgage creditor, as well as the fact that a similar request – regarding security of over 143 million PLN based on the same title – had been filed for the land and mortgage register of another property owned by Zbigniew Ziobro. The court’s decision is not final.
Prosecutor’s Office: The court’s decision is unfounded
Journalists asked the minister of justice and prosecutor general, who was in Suwałki on Wednesday, about the matter. Żurek said he was in contact with prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk, from whom he knew that “a request has already been submitted which meets the expectations of the person who refused to make this entry.”
According to him, this is not a matter of the security being dismissed, but rather “the failure to make the appropriate entry in the land and mortgage registers, and that only for part of the properties that are to be covered by this security.”
– We will certainly draw conclusions from this. I will check whether it was indeed an error on the part of the person who filled out the request (…), or whether it was a matter of some above-standard requirements from the person responsible for making the entry. We know that sometimes the same regulations are interpreted differently by different people. I do not regard this as a failure – said the head of the Ministry of Justice and Prosecutor General’s Office.
He stressed that he does not comment on the decision of the clerk, and that such refusals do occur. – Anyone who has ever submitted various types of applications to a court knows that sometimes we encounter someone who reads a given application in a particular way – Żurek said.
The spokesperson for the National Prosecutor’s Office (PK), prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, told PAP on Wednesday that the prosecutor leading the investigation assessed the ruling of the Rawa court as “unfounded”, but concluded that “the efficiency of the proceedings justifies submitting a new request.”
In this context – the PK spokesperson reported – “by a ruling dated 4 December, the prosecutor amended the ruling of 12 November on asset security, explicitly indicating that the security is established in favour of the State Treasury and aims to enforce the obligation imposed on the suspect to repair the damage caused by the crime.”
Ziobro: Another act of revenge
On 12 November, the National Prosecutor’s Office (PK) ordered asset security measures against MP Zbigniew Ziobro. These include both encumbering his properties with a compulsory mortgage and seizing funds from the former minister of justice’s bank account. Investigators referred to Article 291 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It states that in the event of a suspect being accused of committing an offence that may result in a fine or a compensatory measure (e.g. an obligation to repair damage), the prosecutor may, ex officio, secure the execution of such a ruling on the suspect’s assets if there is a justified concern that without such security, its enforcement would be impossible or significantly hindered.
– Securing my assets is yet another act of revenge for investigations revealing large-scale corruption among Tusk’s people – Nowak, Giertych, Grodzki, Gawłowski, Karpiński – as well as cases concerning Tusk himself. These proceedings are being swept under the rug – Zbigniew Ziobro commented on the prosecutor’s decision.
On 7 November this year, the Sejm lifted Ziobro’s immunity and granted consent for his detention and possible arrest, in connection with alleged abuses in the Justice Fund (FS) during the PiS government. On the same day, a few hours later, the prosecutor issued a ruling presenting Ziobro with 26 charges and ordering his detention and compulsory escort by the Internal Security Agency (ABW).
In mid-November, the prosecution filed a request with the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów to arrest Ziobro for three months. The court hearing on the matter is scheduled for 22 December.