Polish parliament revokes immunity for the previous justice minister
A former justice minister could now be arrested and charged with a variety of offenses, including abuse of power and leading an organized crime gang, after the lower house of parliament in Poland decided on Friday to revoke his immunity.
Zbigniew Ziobro, who served as justice minister in the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) administration from 2015 to 2023, chose to stay overseas rather than attend the vote on his immunity because he believes he would not receive fair treatment if he returned to Poland.
The pro-EU government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk is calling for an inquiry into alleged misconduct by the former PiS government.
The most well-known member of the PiS cabinet that prosecutors have tried to indict is Ziobro, the creator of the court changes that sparked years of dispute with the EU over judicial independence.
He is accused of 26 offenses, including misappropriating funds from the Justice Fund, which supports victims of crime, to buy the Pegasus spyware program.
According to Ziobro, the government is waging a witch hunt against him in retaliation for his actions against suspected corruption among Tusk’s close associates.
Investigations have already been conducted into a number of Ziobro’s deputies. Marcin Romanowski, one of them, escaped to Hungary and was given political refuge there.
In a meeting with Ziobro last month in Budapest, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban, a nationalist with strong connections to the old PiS government, charged that the current Tusk government was conducting a “political witch hunt, opens new tab” against Ziobro.
According to Polish media, Ziobro remains in Budapest. His location has not been independently verified by Reuters.
Before the vote, Polish prosecutors were asked what they would do if Ziobro’s immunity was revoked. They said they would make a comment after decisions were made.
