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Poland requests ex-minister Ziobro's extradition from US

27.07.2026 12:00
Poland has submitted a formal request to extradite former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro from the United States, the state news agency PAP reported on Monday, citing unofficial sources close to the investigation.
Zbigniew Ziobro, Polands former justice minister, at a Law and Justice (PiS) party conference in the southern city of Katowice, October 2025.
Zbigniew Ziobro, Poland's former justice minister, at a Law and Justice (PiS) party conference in the southern city of Katowice, October 2025.Photo: PAP/Art Service

Ziobro is a suspect in a corruption probe linked to Poland's Justice Fund, a state scheme set up to compensate crime victims and overseen by his ministry under the previous Law and Justice (PiS) government.

He faces 26 charges in total linked mainly to the alleged misuse of money.

The former justice minister has denied wrongdoing, saying he is the target of a politically motivated campaign by Poland’s pro-European Union government.

Ziobro has been in the US since May, having previously spent time in Hungary, where he was granted international protection under then-Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

A Polish court approved his arrest in February, and a wanted notice was later issued.

Prosecutors also sought a European arrest warrant, but Warsaw's regional court refused to issue one this month.

Ziobro announced on 10 May – shortly after Orbán's party lost Hungary's election – that he was in the US.

He said he had not fled Poland and was travelling on a document issued alongside his Hungarian asylum status.

At the time, Justice Minister and Prosecutor General Waldemar Żurek said he would seek Ziobro's extradition.

In early July, Hungary revoked refugee status for Ziobro, his wife Patrycja Kotecka-Ziobro, and Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister also under investigation over the Justice Fund.

Their travel documents were invalidated as well.

(ał)

Source: PAP