Poland’s ex-minister facing prosecution at home travels from Hungary to US

Former Justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro faces prosecution for alleged abuse of power

A former Polish justice minister sought in his homeland for alleged abuse of power says he has travelled from Hungary to the US, prompting prosecutors in Poland to say on Monday that they are investigating whether he was assisted in evading liability.

Zbigniew Ziobro was a key figure in the government led by the nationalist conservative Law and Justice party that ran Poland between 2015 and 2023. That administration established political control over key judicial institutions by stacking higher courts with friendly judges and punishing its critics with disciplinary action or assignments to faraway locations.

Ziobro announced in January that he had been granted asylum in Hungary, then led by nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban.

On Sunday, Ziobro told right-wing Polish broadcaster Republika that he had arrived in the United States the previous day – coinciding with the inauguration in Budapest of Orban’s successor, Peter Magyar, who defeated the long-time leader in an election last month. He said that he was using a document granted to him along with his right to asylum, Polish news agency PAP reported.

Current Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government came to power in late 2023 with ambitions to roll back the judicial changes made by its predecessor, but efforts to undo them have been blocked by two successive presidents aligned with the nationalist right.

In October, prosecutors requested the lifting of Ziobro’s parliamentary immunity to press charges against him. They allege among other things that Ziobro misused a fund for victims of violence, including for the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.