Fugitive ex-justice minister reached US via Italy, say Polish prosecutors as TV chief questioned over escape

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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.

Polish prosecutors have confirmed that Zbigniew Ziobro, the former justice minister wanted on 26 criminal charges, flew to the United States earlier this month from Italy using a US visa issued to him as a “member of the media”.

The announcement came on the same day that the head of a right-wing TV station that hired Ziobro as its new US correspondent was questioned by prosecutors investigating whether anyone had aided his escape.

Ziobro, who is a deputy leader of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party that ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023 and is now in opposition, was in December granted asylum in Hungary by the government of Viktor Orbán, a PiS ally.

Orbán lost power at elections in April to Péter Magyar, who had pledged to deport Ziobro back to Poland. But, on 10 May, one day after Magyar was sworn in as prime minister, Ziobro announced that he had arrived in the US.

Since then, it has remained unclear how Ziobro managed to get from Hungary to the US. On Wednesday, Przemysław Nowak, spokesman for the National Prosecutor’s Office, announced at a press conference that the Polish authorities now have “official information” on his travel.

“The suspect left Europe on 9 May, flying from Milan to the United States, to New York, by plane. He used a visa for, and I quote, ‘a member of the foreign media,'”, said Nowak, quoted by the Polish Press Agency (PAP).

Those details fit with remarks by Magyar, during a visit to Poland this week, in which he said that Ziobro had not left the European Schengen Area directly from Hungary, meaning “he most likely went to the USA from another EU country”.

They also correspond with the fact that Ziobro was pictured by a member of the public at Newark Liberty International Airport on the weekend of 9-10 May, as well as with unofficial reports in Polish media that he obtained a US visa as a journalist working for conservative broadcaster Republika.

On 11 May, national prosecutor Dariusz Korneluk announced that the station’s editor-in-chief, Tomasz Sakiewicz, was being called in for questioning “to clarify how Zbigniew Ziobro suddenly became a correspondent of Republika overnight, right after the change of government in Hungary”.

Prosecutors would determine “whether this is connected to…the crime of aiding and abetting, including creating false documents for a wanted person”, Korneluk told broadcaster TVN.

On Wednesday this week, Sakiewicz appeared as requested at the prosecutor’s office for questioning as part of “an investigation concerning obstruction of justice by helping a suspect avoid criminal responsibility, primarily by aiding him in his escape”, said Nowak, quoted by Polsat News.

The spokesman said that Sakiewicz had refused to answer most questions, citing journalistic privilege. He also noted that the editor was being questioned as a witness, and there were currently no plans to charge him.

Speaking outside the prosecutor’s office, where hundreds of his supporters had gathered in a show of support for him, Sakiewicz argued that, by law, Ziobro was a “free man” because Poland has not yet issued an international warrant for him.

On Tuesday this week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government has pledged to hold Ziobro and other former PiS officials to account for alleged crimes, condemned the “outrageous” decision by the US to grant Ziobro a visa.

His remarks came in the wake of reporting by Reuters, based on unnamed sources, that US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau had personally instructed State Department officials to facilitate a visa for Ziobro.

Landau reportedly argued that the Polish politician was being unfairly prosecuted and that urgently granting him entry to the US was “a national security issue”. Reuters’ sources also said that Ziobro was granted a journalist visa.

The Polish government has pledged to seek Ziobro’s extradition, but acknowledges that extradition proceedings with the US are lengthy, complex, and often do not end in success.

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: Adam Guz / KPRM (under public domain)

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.