Ziobro, a senior figure from the former right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government, told a Polish broadcaster on Tuesday that he would not resign his seat in the Polish parliament’s lower house.
He said he learned in the second half of December that Hungary had granted him international protection and political asylum, and that arrangements were handled in part by a Hungarian lawyer.
Hungarian authorities said they granted him protection because they believe he could face political persecution in Poland.
One of Ziobro’s lawyers, Bartosz Lewandowski, said the decision was linked to alleged violations of rights and actions by prosecutors that he described as political reprisals.
Poland’s government rejected that argument. Government spokesman Adam Szłapka told a news conference on Tuesday that Ziobro would stand before the justice system, calling it “a matter of months.”
Szłapka said prosecutors intend to charge Ziobro, including with leading an organized criminal group, and he called Ziobro’s comparison of his situation to the era of martial law persecution of dissenters by communist authorities in the early 1980s “brazen.”
At the center of the case is the Justice Fund, a state-run program originally intended o support victims of crime and post-penitentiary assistance.
The National Public Prosecutor’s Office, a top-level prosecution authority in Poland, alleges Ziobro abused his position to steer multimillion-zloty grants to selected recipients and to interfere with competition procedures.
Prosecutors say the case involves 26 alleged offenses, including ordering subordinates to break the law and allowing funds to go to entities not entitled to them.
In early November, Polish MPs lifted Ziobro’s parliamentary immunity and agreed that he could be detained and held in pretrial custody if ordered by a court.
Prosecutors then issued a decision to present charges and to detain him and bring him in forcibly with the help of the Internal Security Agency (ABW), Poland’s domestic security service.
Authorities later said Ziobro was not in Poland, and he has since appeared in Budapest and Brussels.
A request by prosecutors for pretrial detention is being handled by the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów. The court considered the motion on December 22 and postponed the hearing to January 15.
If a court orders detention, prosecutors have said they would issue a wanted notice and, if Ziobro is confirmed to be outside Poland, seek his arrest through a European arrest warrant, a European Union tool used to request the surrender of suspects between member states.
Deputy Foreign Minister Ignacy Niemczycki, responsible for European affairs, said EU rules require notification in the form of a diplomatic note. He said Hungary sent a note that did not specify who had received asylum or what type, and Poland has asked Hungarian authorities for details.
Zbigniew Ziobro. Photo: PAP/Art Service
Hungarian international law expert Tamás Lattmann told the PAP news agency that granting asylum to Ziobro by Hungary was “pure politics” based on false political arguments. He added that there is usually no legal path to challenge an asylum decision.
Ziobro said he would continue political and media activity from Budapest and claimed the current authorities in Poland are breaking the law.
Asked what he would do if an opposition force led by Péter Magyar wins power in Hungary, Ziobro said he would keep fighting as long as he can.
Hungary’s next parliamentary election is scheduled for April 12, after President Tamás Sulyok announced the date on Tuesday.
(rt/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP