Poland’s former justice minister, who is wanted in his home country for alleged abuse of power, says he has traveled from Hungary to the United States, prompting prosecutors in Poland to say Monday that they are investigating whether he helped evade responsibility.
Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the national conservative Law and Justice party that ruled Poland between 2015 and 2023. The regime maintained political control over key judicial institutions by keeping high courts and friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary measures or work in remote areas.
Ziobro announced in January that he had been granted asylum in Hungary, then headed by national prime minister Viktor Orban.
On Sunday, Ziobro told the right-wing Polish broadcaster Republika that he had arrived in the US the day before – to coincide with the inauguration in Budapest of Orban’s successor, Peter Magyar, who defeated the long-time leader in an election last month. He said he was using the document he was given along with his right to asylum, Polish news agency PAP reported.
The government of current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk came to power at the end of 2023 with the intention of reversing the judicial changes made by his predecessor, but the reversal efforts have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the nationalist right.
In October, prosecutors requested that Ziobro’s parliamentary immunity be waived in order to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused funds for victims of violence, including the purchase of Israel’s Pegasus surveillance program.
