Former Polish justice minister granted asylum by Orbán flees from Hungary to US

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

This is a breaking news story and may be updated as events develop and more information becomes available.

Poland’s former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who is wanted in his homeland on a range of criminal charges, has been photographed at an airport in the United States, where he has reportedly fled from Hungary.

Ziobro was granted asylum in Hungary last year by the government of Viktor Orbán, who is a conservative ally. However, new Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar, who was sworn into office yesterday, previously promised to launch proceedings to extradite Ziobro to Poland on his first day in office.

On Sunday morning, right-wing Polish broadcaster Republika reported that Ziobro was in the US and would appear on the station on Sunday evening.

A few hours later, TVN, a US-owned Polish liberal broadcaster, published a photograph of Ziobro at Newark Liberty International Airport that it said had been taken by another traveller.

The image showed Ziobro sitting at a Panda Express Chinese restaurant, speaking on his phone and surrounded by luggage.

The face of a person sitting at the same table as Ziobro cannot be seen. But conservative Polish news website wPolityce reported today that Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister who also received asylum in Hungary after fleeing charges in Poland, has likewise now travelled to the US.

However, subsequently, Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading liberal daily, reported that, while Ziobro and his wife, Patrycja Kotecka, had been granted entry to the US, Romanowski, who unlike Ziobro is subject to a European Arrest Warrant, had not.

At the time of writing, there has been no comment from Ziobro, Romanowski or their legal teams on the latest reports.

The spokesman for Poland’s foreign ministry, Maciej Wewiór, told the Fakt newspaper that they currently have no official information regarding Ziobro’s alleged travel to the US.

Wewiór noted that Ziobro’s Polish passport had previously been revoked, so “we do not know what documents he was supposed to be using to travel, or if it is even true”.

Ziobro and Romanowski were part of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government that ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023. PiS is an ally of Orbán and his Fidesz party. Both are also closely aligned with American President Donald Trump.

After PiS lost power in December 2023, the new, more liberal government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk began a series of investigations into alleged corruption and abuses of power under the former administration.

Ziobro is accused of committing a variety of crimes, including leading a criminal group and approving the unlawful purchase of Pegasus spyware. If found guilty, he could face up to 25 years in prison. Ziobro denies the offences and claims to be the victim of a “political vendetta” against him by Tusk.

In October, the government’s majority in parliament approved the lifting of Ziobro’s immunity from prosecution. However, he had by then already travelled to Hungary, where he met personally with Orbán and was then granted asylum in December.

In February, Hungarian opposition leader Magyar announced, after meeting with Tusk, that, if he won power at April’s elections, on his first day in office he would begin proceedings to extradite Ziobro and Romanowski to Poland to face justice.

Magyar’s Tisza party subsequently won a landslide victory at those elections, ending 16 years of Orbán rule. Yesterday, Magyar and his new government took office.

Ziobro and Romanowski have both previously declared that they would only be willing to return voluntarily to Poland “when the rule of law is restored”. They claim that, under Tusk’s government, it would be impossible for them to receive a fair trial.

Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: Pawel Malecki / Agencja Wyborcza.pl

Daniel Tilles

Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.