Court upholds request to detain Polish ex justice minister, paving way for US extradition application
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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.
A Warsaw court has rejected an appeal by Zbigniew Ziobro, a former justice minister wanted on multiple criminal charges, against a request by Polish prosecutors to have him brought into pretrial detention.
The decision, which is now final, will not immediately result in Ziobro being detained, given that he recently fled to the United States. However, it paves the way for Poland to request his extradition.
Zażalenie obrońców Ziobry odrzucone. Sąd zgadza się na tymczasowy areszt Ziobry. Esktradycja coraz bliżej. Ziobro served as justice minister in the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government from 2015 to 2023. Last year, prosecutors announced that they wanted to charge him with 26 crimes, including leading a criminal group and approving the unlawful purchase of Pegasus spyware .
In October, parliament approved the lifting of Ziobro’s immunity from prosecution. However, he had by then already travelled to Hungary, whose prime minister at the time, Viktor Orbán, is an ally of PiS. In December, Ziobro was granted political asylum by the Hungarian government.
In February this year, Warsaw’s district court approved a request from prosecutors to place Ziobro in pretrial detention. That decision was needed in order for the authorities to issue domestic and European arrest warrants against the suspect.
However, Ziobro’s lawyers appealed against the decision. While that appeal was waiting to be heard, Orbán lost power in Hungary and, as his successor Péter Magyar was being sworn in, Ziobro left the country and flew to the United States .
On Monday this week, the Warsaw court rejected Ziobro’s appeal and upheld the decision to approve his pretrial detention. Spokeswoman Anna Ptaszek said the court had found that “the most important charges, relating to the most serious crimes, have been substantiated”.
She added, however, that, “at this stage, the court is not ruling on the suspect’s guilt or innocence…[but] merely assessing whether the evidence the prosecutor has gathered so far is strong and convincing enough to justify the application of detention”, reports the Gazeta Wyborcza daily.
Prosecutor Piotr Woźniak, who is leading the investigation into alleged abuses relating to justice ministry funds, noted that the court’s decision will help with an extradition request for Ziobro. While not formally required, without it there is “little chance of success”, he said.
Ziobro, meanwhile, claimed that the court’s decision “was made even before the hearing began” and “confirms the political nature of this case”. He repeated his previous claims that the entire case against him is an act of “political revenge” by Tusk’s government.
To, co wydarzyło się dziś przed Sądem Okręgowym w Warszawie w sprawie zażaleń moich obrońców na zastosowanie tymczasowego aresztowania przez sąd rejonowy, potwierdza polityczny charakter tej sprawy. Decyzja o utrzymaniu tymczasowego aresztowania została podjęta jeszcze przed… After Ziobro fled to the US, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk criticised Washington’s decision to grant him a visa as “outrageous”.
Subsequently, Polish prosecutors revealed that Ziobro had been given a visa as “a member of the media”. After arriving in the US, Ziobro announced he had been appointed as a correspondent for conservative Polish broadcaster Republika.
News agency Reuters has reported, based on unnamed sources, that US deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau personally instructed State Department officials to facilitate a visa for Ziobro, whom he argued was being unfairly prosecuted.
Polish justice minister Waldemar Żurek has pledged that the authorities “will do everything to bring Mr Ziobro to justice in Poland”. However, both he and Tusk have warned that extradition proceedings in the US are lengthy, complex and often do not succeed.
PM @donaldtusk says it is "outrageous" that the US granted a visa to fugitive former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who is wanted on 26 criminal charges. Reuters earlier reported that a senior US official intervened personally to secure Ziobro's visa During his time as justice minister, Ziobro was the architect of a series of controversial and contested judicial reforms , which Polish and European courts have repeatedly found to have violated the law.
After PiS lost power in December 2023, the new, more liberal government led by Tusk began a series of investigations into alleged corruption and abuses of power under the former administration.
However, while charges have been brought against a number of former PiS officials – including former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki – none have yet gone on trial.
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: Adam Guz / KPRM (under public domain)
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland . He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy , POLITICO Europe , EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna .