Having been granted asylum by Orban after being accused of embezzlement and wiretapping political opponents, the former Polish Minister of Justice flees to the US

News

Express newspaper

10/05/2026 23:55

Former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro is now in the United States thanks to a visa from President Donald Trump, after fleeing Hungary.

Ziobro had been in Hungary since 2025, after former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán granted him asylum. However, the new Hungarian leader, Péter Magyar, promised to initiate extradition proceedings against Ziobro upon taking office.

Ziobro is wanted in Poland for alleged misuse of public funds and deploying the Pegasus spyware program against political opponents. He has repeatedly denied the charges, calling the investigation a political vendetta by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

Ziobro confirmed his arrival in the US in an interview with right-wing Polish broadcaster TV Republika on Sunday evening.

“The United States is freedom. Freedom you can really fight for.”, said Ziobro

Onet reported that he had received a US journalist visa associated with the station, which declined to confirm or deny the news. According to Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza, Trump personally approved the visa despite objections from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US Ambassador to Warsaw Tom Rose.

During the interview, TV Republika, which has long been a supporter of Ziobro and his Law and Justice (PiS) party, announced that it had hired him as a political commentator in the US.

Ziobro called the criminal charges against him “fabricated” and said he would fight extradition to a U.S. court rather than return to Poland. He accused Tusk of interfering in his case, including posting on social media that Ziobro would be arrested while he still had parliamentary immunity. “Donald Tusk can’t write that in the United States,” he said.

Polish Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek said on Sunday that his ministry would initiate extradition proceedings against Ziobro.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry said it had no official information about his whereabouts, adding that his Polish passport had been revoked. Ziobro told TV Republika that he had been traveling with an asylum-related document issued by Hungary./Tch