Speaking on Polish Radio on Wednesday, Sikorski was asked about reports that Hungary had granted asylum to Zbigniew Ziobro, a former justice minister under the previous right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) government.
Poland's top diplomat said the Hungarian ambassador, who was summoned to the foreign ministry late last week, had not provided a copy of the asylum decision and had “not even confirmed the identity of the individuals who were granted asylum.”
Sikorski rejected comments made by Ziobro in a Tuesday interview with RMF FM, in which the former minister compared his situation to that of people who did not return to Poland during the period of martial law in the early 1980s.
The Polish foreign minister said he had once sought asylum, fleeing communist rule in the 1980s rather than facing legal proceedings in Poland.
Such remarks, he added, amounted “at best to hysteria and at worst to mockery of the Solidarity generation – Polish anti-communists who opposed martial law.”
Key facts on Ziobro’s international protection in Hungary
One of Zbigniew Ziobro’s lawyers, Bartosz Lewandowski, announced on Monday that the former justice minister had been granted international protection and political asylum in Hungary.
According to Lewandowski, the decision was based on alleged violations of rights and freedoms in Poland, as well as actions by authorities, including the public prosecutor’s office, which he described as political repression.
The following day, Ziobro told RMF FM radio that he had learned about the asylum in the second half of December 2025. He said he could not recall exactly when he applied to the Hungarian authorities and noted that some arrangements were handled by his Hungarian lawyer. Ziobro also sought international protection for his wife, Patrycja Kotecka.
Hungary also granted asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister under Ziobro and current PiS MP. In December 2024, Romanowski received international protection under Hungary’s 2007 asylum law. He is under investigation for alleged irregularities in the use of funds from Poland’s Justice Fund. Prosecutors accuse him of, among other things, participating in a criminal organisation and rigging grant competitions.
In the Justice Fund investigation, the National Prosecutor’s Office alleges that Ziobro led the criminal group and used his office to commit offences.
He is suspected of 26 crimes, including instructing subordinates to break the law to secure grants for favoured entities, interfering in the preparation of grant proposals, and allowing funds to be awarded to ineligible recipients. On 7 November, the Polish parliament lifted Ziobro’s immunity, authorising his arrest.
A prosecutor subsequently issued charges and an order for his detention and compulsory appearance by the Internal Security Agency (ABW).
At that time, Ziobro was not in Poland - he was in Budapest and later appeared in Brussels.
In mid-November, prosecutors filed a request for Ziobro’s temporary detention with the Warsaw-Mokotów District Court, which considered the application on 22 December and postponed the hearing to Thursday, 15 January.
If the court approves the detention request, prosecutors have indicated they will issue a warrant for Ziobro and begin searches.
If it is determined he is outside Poland, the next step would be initiating a European arrest warrant to facilitate his apprehension.
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Source: Polish Radio English Service/PR3/@RadiowaTrojka/PAP/IAR