I would extradite ex-Polish justice minister Ziobro on day one, says Hungarian opposition leader

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Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar has declared that, if he wins April’s elections, his government would extradite former Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who was recently granted asylum in Hungary, back to Poland on its first day in office.

His announcement came shortly after Magyar met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, whose government has condemned Hungary for granting Ziobro asylum after he fled criminal charges in his homeland.

Ziobro is wanted in Poland on suspicion of 26 alleged crimes committed while he served as justice minister in the former government of the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, which is allied with Hungary’s current prime minister, Viktor Orbán, and his Fidesz party.

However, Magyar and his Tisza party are hoping to unseat Orbán at elections on 12 April. On Sunday, the opposition leader was asked what Ziobro and his former deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski, who also fled charges in Poland and obtained asylum in Hungary, can expect under a Tisza-led government.

“If they are still here when the Tisza government is formed, we will extradite them on the first day,” replied Magyar.  “But I think they’re either going to go to Minsk or Moscow. There might be someone else on the plane too,” he added, in an apparent reference to Orbán himself.

In response, one of Ziobro’s lawyers, Bartosz Lewandowski, wrote on social media that “the decision on extradition in Hungary is made by a court, not by a politician”.

Magyar’s remarks came shortly after he met Tusk, who has regularly clashed with Orbán, on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The meeting was also attended by other senior figures from the Hungarian opposition as well as Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski.

“Mr Magyar requested this meeting,” Tusk told reporters while on his way to Munich. “He is particularly interested in rebuilding relations with Poland, and I am also interested in that.”

Afterwards, the Hungarian opposition leader wrote on social media that he and Tusk had “agreed that, immediately following the change of government, we will rebuild political, economic, and cultural relations between Hungary and Poland”.

Meanwhile, senior figures from PiS, including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, have endorsed Orbán, just as the Hungarian prime minister last year expressed support for the PiS-backed Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki.

Ziobro is accused of committing a variety of crimes, including leading a criminal group, abusing his powers and approving the unlawful purchase of Pegasus spyware, when he served as justice minister in the PiS-led government from 2015 to 2023.

If found guilty, he could face up to 25 years in prison. However, Ziobro denies the offences and claims to be a victim of a “political vendetta” against him by Tusk’s government.

In October, the Polish 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.

Earlier this month, a Polish court approved a request from prosecutors to place Ziobro in pretrial detention. That then allowed prosecutors to issue a domestic arrest warrant for him and request a European Arrest Warrant (EAW).

However, if Orbán and Fidesz remain in power, it appears almost certain that the Hungarian authorities would not comply with the EAW, given that they have granted him asylum, just as they have refused to extradite Romanowski since he fled to Budapest in 2024.

Tisza has held a significant lead over Fidesz in polls over the last year.

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: Magyar Péter/X

Olivier Sorgho

Olivier Sorgho is senior editor at Notes from Poland, covering politics, business and society. He previously worked for Reuters.