section_path: Possible execution of the arrest warrants/Speculated January 2025 visit to Poland
section_name: Speculated January 2025 visit to Poland
paragraph_text: Speculated January 2025 visit to Poland
  
  In December 2024 and January 2025, the possibility of Netanyahu visiting Poland, party to the Rome Statute, on 27 January, the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp was discussed by Polish politicians. On 5 December 2024, Andrzej Szejna, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated at a Sejm sitting of the foreign affairs committee that Poland was obliged to cooperate with the ICC. He stated that heads of countries had no immunity in the ICC context. On 9 January 2025, Polish president Andrzej Duda requested the government led by Donald Tusk to protect Netanyahu from arrest were he to choose to attend the anniversary commemorations. On the same day, the government published a resolution stating that it would "guarantee the free and secure participation to the ceremony to the highest representatives of Israel" (Polish: zapewni wolny i bezpieczny dostęp i udział w tych obchodach najwyższym przedstawicielom Państwa Izrael). OKO.press commented that the government resolution did not name Netanyahu explicitly. Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated his interpretation of the resolution to the media, according to which any Israeli representative who made the visit, whether it were "the prime minister" or another leader, would not be detained.
  
  An ICC spokesperson responded by stating that carrying out ICC decisions is obligatory to states parties towards both the ICC and to other states parties. The spokesperson stated that states with concerns about their obligations could consult with the ICC, but were not permitted to unilaterally determine the validity of the ICC's legal decisions. Legal scholars Karolina Wierczyńska, Piotr Hofmański and Omer Bartov stated that Netanyahu would have to be arrested if he visited Poland. Member of the Sejm Tomasz Trela stated that Netanyahu would have to be "instantly" arrested the moment he crossed the Polish border. Under Polish law, the Rome Statute is an international treaty obligation with legal priority above that of a Cabinet resolution. The procedure for an ICC fugitive is defined in Chapter 66e of the Polish criminal procedure law associated with the Polish Penal Code. According to legal scholar Hanna Kuczyńska, if an ICC fugitive arrived in Poland at the Kraków international airport, then the Minister of Justice would have to request a prosecutor to order that the person be detained by the police and brought to the Kraków district court, which would decide on the fugitive's transfer to The Hague. The district court's decision would be strongly constrained by the Rome Statute.
  
  The International Centre of Justice for Palestinians sent letters to Polish authorities stating that it would "take immediate and robust legal action in Polish courts" if Polish legal obligations under the Rome Statute were not followed. It stated its view that "any attempt by the executive to pre-empt or obstruct judicial processes represen a serious breach of the rule of law".