Zbigniew Ziobro, the former Polish justice minister in the last Conservative (PiS) government did not attend a parliamentary hearing on the lifting of his immunity from prosecution.
Ziobro is to face 26 charges prepared by Polish prosecutors but since October 27 has been staying in Budapest.
The parliamentary committee approved the justice ministry’s request for his immunity to be waived and for him to be arrested and detained pending trial.
The committee’s recommendations will be voted on in parliament on November 7. Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s coalition has a majority and has approved motions to lift immunity for all other indicted PiS officials.
Ziobro denies all the charges against him.
During a press conference in Budapest on November 6, Ziobro said he was not going to return to Poland because he had been told he would be arrested and held before the hearing took place, which he said would be unlawful.
“I received information that part of the spectacle which Donald Tusk has been consistently staging, regardless of the law, was supposed to be my detention upon returning to the country, and at the very least to hinder or possibly even prevent me from exercising my right to respond to the absurd allegations contained in the motion to lift my immunity,” he added.
Ziobro denied, though, that he is preparing to apply for asylum in Hungary, as his deputy Marcin Romanowski did after facing similar charges to those facing Ziobro.
The former justice minister has been undergoing treatment for cancer of the oesophagus since late 2023.
He was to visit a clinic in Brussels on November 12 for tests to check whether his cancer was recurring. Despite that, a medical certificate was issued to prosecutors declaring him to be fit enough to stand detention in prison before he was examined.
Ziobro has been charged with heading an “organised crime group” in the pursuit “of personal and political gain” to syphon off funds from the Justice Fund intended for victims of crimes. He accused Tusk of seeking revenge for him having pursued officials from Tusk’s party for alleged corruption during his time in power.
“Tusk’s revenge has entered a new phase, in this case the submission of a motion to lift my immunity and parliamentary approval of my arrest,” said Ziobro.
Listing the scandals he claims to have uncovered while in office, which led to the arrest of some officials for corruption and to two of them being found guilty, Ziobro said: “One could say that Donald Tusk has reasons for revenge.
“As prosecutor general – minister of justice, I supervised numerous proceedings in which members of Donald Tusk’s party appeared as suspects in very serious crimes.”
Ziobro also claimed that he was being persecuted because of his successful campaigns to deal with VAT and fuel excise duty abuses.
“My overriding goal was to deal with VAT mafias, not to settle scores with my predecessors,” he added.
“All these accusations are false, fabricated and an example of the attitude ‘give me the man and I’ll find the paragraph’.
“They reflect the helplessness of the prosecution subordinated to Tusk, who is looking for a pretext to destroy and damage the public image of political opponents,” he said.
Ziobro added that there was no question of funds having been embezzled as the money was transparently spent on crime prevention or alleviation of the effects of crime.
“All actions were within the framework of the law, the provisions of the Executive Penal Code, and other laws in force in Poland,” he said.
Asked about Ziobro remaining in Hungary, Jarosław Kaczyński, the PiS leader, accused Tusk of attempting to endanger Ziobro’s life.
“I understand full well no one is going to risk their lives just to feed the vendetta planned by the Prime Minister” Kaczyński said.
The government, though, claims ]Ziobro misappropriated funds, including for the purchase of the Pegasus spyware allegedly used to investigate opposition politicians from Tusk’s party during the lifetime of the last PiS government.
It also argues that preventative detention is required to stop Ziobro trying to influence witnesses and because he is a flight risk. That was especially so, it said, given his deputy Marcin Romanowski MP has received asylum in Hungary.
Romanowski’s asylum provoked a diplomatic row between Poland and Hungary with the Tusk government claiming the Hungarians were violating a European arrest warrant. As a result, Poland recalled its ambassador to Hungary for consultations.
Current justice minister Waldemar Żurek threatened that should Ziobro stay in Hungary to avoid arrest, the government may decide to use “shadow operators” to seize him “to face justice in Poland”.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has slammed Tusk and his government for pursuing what he called a political vendetta against former PiS officials and has made clear he is ready to offer sanctuary to those being indicted.
