Zbigniew Ziobro, MP from the Polish Law and Justice party (PiS), at the party’s program conference in Katowice, October 2025.Image: keystone
May 10, 2026, 9:51 p.mMay 10, 2026, 9:51 p.m
Former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, wanted by Poland on suspicion of corruption, has left his asylum in Hungary and is staying in the USA. “I flew here yesterday,” the politician from the right-wing conservative PiS told the broadcaster Telewizja Republika. The USA is “the strongest democracy in the world”.
Poland’s general public prosecutor’s office is investigating the 55-year-old ex-minister of the former PiS government for 26 criminal offenses, including suspicion of founding and membership in a criminal organization and suspicion of embezzlement of the equivalent of 35 million euros. According to investigators, he could face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Ziobro has described the allegations as “breakneck” and sees himself being persecuted for political reasons.
Hungary’s new head of government no longer wants to protect Ziobro
Last year, Ziobro, like his former deputy Marcin Romanowski, fled to Hungary and received political asylum there from the now voted-out Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Ziobro and Romanowski belong to the right-wing conservative PiS party, which ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023. Hungary’s new Prime Minister Peter Magyar had already announced that his country would no longer protect the two politicians.
The fact that Ziobro has now managed to leave the country could put a strain on Poland’s relationship with Hungary and the USA. Poland’s Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek announced that Warsaw would ask both countries for information on the legal basis on which Ziobro’s departure from Hungary and entry into the USA was possible without valid documents. The Polish Foreign Ministry declared Ziobro’s passport invalid after he fled to Hungary. Zurek also announced that they would submit an extradition request for Ziobro to the USA.
Ziobro said in the USA that he was not afraid of a lawsuit. “An independent American court is certainly an independent court, so if you want to initiate extradition proceedings, go ahead.” (sda/dpa)