Former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro has been granted political asylum in Hungary after his immunity was lifted in Poland and he faces wide-ranging charges of embezzlement and suspected criminal activity. From Budapest, he criticizes the Polish government and claims that he is a victim of political persecution.
The Hungarian government granted political asylum to the former Polish Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobra. The current opposition deputy, who is accused of corruption and abuse of power in Poland, announced this on Monday on the X network, TASR reports, according to a Reuters report.
- Hungary granted asylum to former Polish minister Ziobr.
- Ziobro faces charges of corruption and abuse of power in Poland.
Ziobra is accused in Poland of a total of 26 criminal offences, including suspicion of founding and membership of a criminal organization and embezzlement of 150 million zlotys (over 35 million euros) from a special fund to support victims of crimes, which was allegedly used in part to illegally finance the purchase of the controversial Israeli spy software Pegasus.
Parliamentary immunity revoked
The Polish Sejm revoked Ziobra’s parliamentary immunity in November last year. The General Prosecutor’s Office subsequently requested that he be taken into custody. The Polish ex-minister traveled to Budapest for several weeks in December, where he has been staying ever since.
“I decided to take advantage of the asylum granted to me by the Hungarian government due to political persecution in Poland,” Ziobro wrote on X. In the post, he criticized the current Polish government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and claimed he had decided to stay abroad until “real guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland.” “I have decided to fight against political banditry and lawlessness. I am against the spreading dictatorship,” he declared.
Another asylum in Hungary
The fact that Hungary granted asylum to two Polish citizens was reported in the past few days by Hungarian and Polish media. But Budapest did not disclose their identity. The newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza wrote that it is apparently a Polish ex-minister and his wife. Ziobro confirmed on X that he requested that she be placed under international protection.
In December 2024, Ziobr’s former deputy Marcin Romanowski also fled to Hungary and received political asylum there. Similar charges were brought against him as against Ziobr.
From 2015 to 2023, Ziobro was the Minister of Justice in the government of the right-wing party Law and Justice (PiS). In this position, he initiated a series of controversial judicial reforms that sparked a dispute between Poland and the European Union.
