Polish MP Wojciech Król has been formally presented with corruption-related allegations by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, escalating an unprecedented investigation that has already led to his arrest and could now result in pre-trial detention.
Król, an MP from the governing Civic Coalition, was brought by Central Anti-Corruption Bureau officers to the EPPO office in Katowice on Friday after being arrested in Warsaw the previous evening.
His lawyer, Marta Smołka, said on Friday afternoon that Król now faces four corruption-related allegations in total — two presented on Friday and two presented earlier in the proceedings.
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She also said prosecutors intended to seek his pre-trial detention. As of Friday afternoon, no court ruling on detention had been reported. Parliamentary consent allows Król to be detained and potentially remanded in custody, but the decision on pre-trial detention rests with a court.
Król has denied wrongdoing.
“I feel innocent,” he told reporters as CBA officers escorted him into the prosecutor’s office on Friday morning.
First such EPPO case involving a Polish MP
The case is significant beyond Król himself.
When European Chief Prosecutor Laura Codruța Kövesi asked the Sejm in May to lift the immunity of an active Polish MP, it was the first such request made by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office to Poland’s parliament.
EPPO’s public statement at the time did not name the politician, but subsequent parliamentary proceedings confirmed that the request concerned Król. Polish parliamentary officials described the matter as procedurally unprecedented.
EPPO only began operating in Poland after the country joined the system under the government that took office in late 2023.
Its involvement is important because EPPO is an independent EU prosecution service responsible for investigating crimes that damage the European Union’s financial interests, including fraud and corruption involving EU funds.
The Król investigation therefore represents the first occasion on which that institution has used Poland’s parliamentary-immunity procedure against a sitting Polish MP.
Parliament clears the way for detention
The Sejm voted on Thursday to allow Król to be detained and potentially placed in pre-trial custody.
The motion was supported by 422 MPs, with three voting against and five abstaining. Król was arrested by the CBA later that evening on EPPO’s instructions.
It was the second time European prosecutors had asked parliament to authorise his detention.
In July, the Sejm overwhelmingly agreed to allow Król to be held criminally responsible in relation to two alleged offences but rejected the request to detain and remand him.
The July votes allowing prosecution passed by 436–2 and 437–2 respectively, while only 181 MPs supported detention, short of the required absolute majority.
EPPO subsequently returned to parliament with a second request based on additional alleged offences and new evidence.
Delegated European prosecutor Agnieszka Marcińczyk told a Sejm committee this week that the new application concerned different alleged criminal acts and different grounds for detention from the first request.
Allegation of more than PLN 1.4 million
The most serious allegation publicly reported in connection with Król concerns an alleged payment of at least €330,000 — more than PLN 1.4 million.
According to reporting based on EPPO material submitted to parliament, investigators suspect Król of accepting the money in return for helping a company obtain more than PLN 27 million in EU funding for the “Stara Huta” development project in Chorzów.
The alleged payment was said to represent around 5% of the value of the subsidy and to have been transferred in several instalments through an intermediary.
A second allegation reported from the initial EPPO application concerns at least PLN 37,000 in alleged benefits in exchange for promises to help individuals obtain jobs — including at Tramwaje Śląskie and a road institution — and to assist another person in securing contracts from state-linked companies.
These are prosecution allegations, not established facts. Król has challenged the case and denied accepting bribes.
The precise details of the two additional allegations presented during the later phase of the investigation have not yet been fully set out by EPPO in a public statement.
Investigation began with EU-funded tram programme
The case developed from a broader EPPO investigation into suspected corruption and procurement fraud connected with tram infrastructure in the Upper Silesian-Zagłębie Metropolis.
EPPO says the tram-modernisation programme received around PLN 1.9 billion (€448.3 million) in EU funding between 2007 and 2027.
Investigators allege that a senior public official provided confidential information to a favoured company in an effort to secure a contract.
EPPO has said evidence subsequently pointed to a wider corruption system in which bribes were allegedly paid in return for approval of inflated costs or payments for fictitious work.
The investigation expanded during 2026, with searches, further arrests and additional corruption allegations.
In May, EPPO said evidence also showed that financial benefits had on several occasions been given to a member of the Polish parliament. It then sought parliamentary permission to proceed against that MP.
Two further senior public officials were detained and charged in June as part of the same wider investigation.
Król disputes prosecutors’ case
Król has publicly criticised both the substance of the allegations and the procedure followed by European prosecutors.
Appearing before the Sejm’s rules and immunity committee this week, he questioned differences between successive EPPO applications, criticised translations in prosecution documents and disputed the way alleged benefits had been calculated.
He has also denied specific media-reported claims involving travel to Thailand, saying he had never visited the country, and has contested an allegation concerning the use of a car.
Those arguments form part of Król’s defence. They have not resulted in a court ruling dismissing the allegations.
Political consequences already significant
Król has served in the Sejm since 2015 and is also chairman of Poland’s National Media Council, the state body involved in appointments to public-media institutions.
Civic Coalition suspended him from its parliamentary club after the investigation intensified, and he ceased serving as one of the club’s deputy chairs.
His arrest therefore creates both legal and political complications for Poland’s largest governing party.
But the central significance of the case is institutional.
For the first time since Poland joined EPPO, European prosecutors have moved through the Polish parliament’s immunity procedures against a sitting MP, obtained authority to prosecute him and, following a second application, secured parliamentary permission for his detention.
Król remains presumed innocent unless convicted by a competent court.
The immediate next step is expected to be EPPO’s application for pre-trial detention and the court’s decision on whether prosecutors have demonstrated sufficient grounds to keep a serving member of parliament in custody while the investigation continues.
