Former Polish PM’s close associate fights extradition from UK on corruption charges

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By Sam Tobin

LONDON (Reuters) -A former Polish government official and close associate of ex-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki appeared in a London court on Monday, fighting extradition to face corruption charges relating to contracts for power generators to Ukraine.

Michal Kuczmierowski was head of Poland’s Government Strategic Reserves Agency, referred to by its Polish acronym RARS, from 2021 before he was arrested in Britain in 2024.

Kuczmierowski had been repeatedly praised by Morawiecki, including for organising a military hub at the Rzeszow airport in eastern Poland after the war in neighbouring Ukraine began.

Polish prosecutors last year charged Kuczmierowski in relation to contracts worth over 321 million Polish zloty ($88.7 million) for the purchase of over 1,600 power generators.

Kuczmierowski’s lawyers, however, say his prosecution is politically motivated and that he will be unable to get a fair trial under Poland’s pro-European government led by Donald Tusk.

Tusk’s administration has made a priority of holding to account officials from the previous nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) administration which it accuses of wrongdoing.

The hearing is due to conclude on Thursday, with a ruling on whether Kuczmierowski can be extradited expected at a later date.

POLITICAL MOTIVES?

PiS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Kuczmierowski’s case, but previously described his arrest as “a political attack”.

Lawyers representing the Polish authorities said in court filings that there is “a significant amount of work to do to undo the changes brought about by the PiS which have been found to significantly undermine the rule of law”.

They also accepted that the election of PiS-supported President Karol Nawrocki “could obstruct the current government’s declared intention to introduce legislative changes in the area of the rule of law”.

The Polish authorities nonetheless argued that the Tusk administration’s declared commitments meant there was no systemic risk to a defendant’s right to a fair trial.

But Polish lawyer Mikolaj Pietrzak, called as an expert witness by Kuczmierowski, gave evidence that the Tusk government’s aims were impossible to achieve given the election of Nawrocki as president.

($1 = 3.6200 zlotys)

(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)