Justice Minister and Prosecutor-General Waldemar Żurek said in Warsaw on Monday that comments by Peter Magyar, Hungary's incoming prime minister, pointed to possible cooperation from Hungary’s next government in the two cases.
Magyar, whose party won Sunday’s parliamentary election and is expected to form a government, said at a press conference in Budapest that Ziobro, a former Polish justice minister, and Romanowski, his ex-deputy, "will not stay long" in Hungary and that the country would not shelter internationally wanted criminals.
Żurek said he hoped Hungarian officials would begin working with Polish authorities even before the new government takes office.
He said he hoped they understood that “the time of hiding such fugitives is ending” and that the political asylum protecting people suspected of serious crimes in Poland would be lifted.
He added that prosecutors had sent another urgent filing to the Warsaw Regional Court, asking it to set a date for a hearing on a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for Ziobro.
Żurek said the move reflected the new political situation in Hungary and the risk that the men could try to leave the country. He also accused Ziobro’s lawyers of using procedural motions to delay the case.
Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister, is already covered by a European Arrest Warrant approved by the Warsaw Regional Court in February.
In Ziobro’s case, the same court is still handling both an appeal against his detention and the prosecution’s request for an EAW.
Ziobro, who served as justice minister under the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, faces allegations linked to the Justice Fund, a state fund intended to support crime victims and people leaving prison.
Prosecutors want to charge him with leading an organized criminal group, abusing his office and committing 26 crimes, including directing grants to selected entities and allowing money to go to organizations that were not entitled to receive it.
Hungary granted Ziobro international protection in early January. In February, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów approved his detention, after which Polish authorities issued a wanted notice and filed for a European Arrest Warrant.
(rt/gs)
Sources: IAR, PAP