Ziobro confirms he is in US, says he travelled there with document issued by Hungary

Former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro confirmed to the Polish television station TV Republika that he had left Hungary for the United States, after he was photographed at Newark Airport. Ziobro, who is wanted in Poland, was granted asylum in Hungary in January along with his wife by the Orbán government.

Ziobro said he arrived in the United States on Saturday, the day Hungary's new Prime Minister took office. The Polish politician insisted that he considers U.S. courts to be independent and is prepared to face them if the Warsaw government should seek his extradition. He called the charges against him fabricated and politically motivated.

Zbigniew Ziobro’s diplomatic passport was revoked last November. The former Polish justice minister is suspected of having founded and led a criminal organization while serving as justice minister during the rule of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The organization is suspected of having embezzled as much as 150 million zlotys (13.8 billion forints). Ziobro is suspected of having withdrawn money from the Justice Fund, which was set up for crime prevention purposes and to provide assistance to victims of crime. If convicted, the politician, who is charged with 26 criminal offenses, could face up to 25 years in prison. Ziobro plans to stay in the United States and “enjoy American freedom,” he said.

He also confirmed that he traveled to the United States with the documents accompanying the asylum granted to him by the Hungarian government. Polish Minister of Justice and Chief Prosecutor Waldemar Zurek announced on X on Sunday afternoon that he would be reaching out to American and Hungarian partners with the question: “What legal basis allowed Zbigniew Ziobro to leave Hungarian territory and enter the United States without valid documents?” Warsaw will request the former minister’s extradition this week.

In January, Poland summoned the Hungarian ambassador after Budapest granted asylum to two Polish nationals. Although at the time, these were only press reports, and Ziobro only confirmed it later, it was already suspected at the time that the matter was likely related to the asylum granted to the former Polish Minister of Justice and his wife.

The former Polish minister spoke at a conference in Budapest alongside Gergely Gulyás, then Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office late last October, and also posed for a photo with Viktor Orbán at the time. Viktor Orbán then said that the pro-Brussels Polish government had launched a political witch hunt against the Polish right wing, and that the proceedings against Ziobro were an example of this. In 2024, the Orbán government had already granted asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a Polish politician accused of corruption, whom Direkt36 recently found to be living at the apartment of a man employed by the Fidesz faction of the now former Hungarian administration.

Péter Magyar, who took office as Hungary's Prime Minister on Saturday had previously indicated that his government would not shelter the fugitive Polish politicians, which may have been the reason why Ziobro sought a new place of refuge, while Romanowski remains in Budapest. The two politicians' Polish passports have previously been revoked by the Polish authorities.