Poland revokes passport of ex-justice minister Ziobro who fled abroad amid criminal charges

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work!

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.

Poland has revoked the passport of former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who remains outside the country as Polish prosecutors seek to bring 26 criminal charges against him.

The decision means that Ziobro, who was last month also stripped of a diplomatic passport that he possessed, will be unable to travel outside the European Schengen area. Next week, a Polish court is due to decide whether to issue an arrest warrant for Ziobro.

Ziobro left Poland for Hungary in October, shortly before Poland’s justice minister and prosecutor general asked parliament to lift his immunity from prosecution. That request was approved by parliament in November, opening the way for prosecutors to bring charges against Ziobro.

However, he has subsequently remained in Hungary, where he was welcomed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Ziobro’s national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party. Earlier this month, Ziobro was also in Brussels, where he was seen visiting the European Parliament.

Last month, Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski announced that Ziobro’s diplomatic passport had been revoked at the request of prosecutors. Today, interior minister Marcin Kierwiński revealed that Ziobro’s main passport had now also been invalidated by the governor of Masovia province, where it was issued.

“No one will escape responsibility,” wrote Kierwiński in a post on X.

The article continues below

On 22 December, Warsaw’s district court is due to consider a request from prosecutors to issue a warrant for Ziobro’s arrest. That can in turn be used as the basis for a European Arrest Warrant to be issued if the suspect remains outside the country.

Prosecutors accuse Ziobro of a range of offences linked to the management of the Justice Fund, which was intended to support crime victims but which they say was misused for political purposes.

Among the charges he is facing are establishing and leading a criminal group and abusing his powers for personal and political gain. If found guilty, he could face up to 25 years in prison.

Ziobro denies wrongdoing and says the case against him is part of a “political vendetta” by the current government, which has pledged to hold former PiS-era officials to account for alleged crimes.

Last month, Ziobro announced that he would only return to Poland “when the rule of law is restored”. His lawyer has told prosecutors that Ziobro is willing to be questioned abroad, either in Hungary or Belgium.

Last year, one of Ziobro’s former deputy justice ministers, Marcin Romanowski, likewise fled to Hungary instead of facing charges in Poland. He was granted political asylum by Budapest, prompting an angry response from the Polish government, which withdrew its ambassador.

Ziobro has so far not sought to claim asylum in Hungary, though that may change if and when a European Arrest Warrant is issued, as that would normally require Hungary to transfer the suspect to Poland.

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: Ministerstwo Sprawiedliwości (under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 PL)

Alicja Ptak

Alicja Ptak is deputy editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland and a multimedia journalist. She has written for Clean Energy Wire and The Times, and she hosts her own podcast, The Warsaw Wire, on Poland’s economy and energy sector. She previously worked for Reuters.