Ziebra's passport is inactive valid. There are suspicions that individual is playing on time

The D.A. wants Zbigniew Ziobra's passport revoked, but the proceedings are inactive ongoing. The Mazovian state explains why the decision has not yet been made.


The procedure for the annulment of Zbigniew Ziobry's passport, requested by the National Prosecutor's Office, has been in advancement for nearly a month. The Mazowieckie provincial office ensures that the erstwhile Minister of Justice has been officially notified and has the chance to read the case files. Until the administrative proceedings are completed, the paper remains valid and investigators have limited area for manoeuvre against abroad policy.

What about Zbigniew Ziebra's passport?

After the prosecution announced its intention to charge Zbigniew Ziobrze with spending money from the Justice Fund, investigators besides sought administrative tools. In late November, the National Prosecutor's Office requested the annulment of 2 travel papers of the erstwhile Minister: a diplomatic passport and a average passport.

The diplomatic passport was revoked comparatively rapidly by the head of the MFA. The case of the average passport went to the Mazovia state and it was at this phase that the proceedings stopped. The formal procedure for the annulment of the paper is almost a month, which raises questions as to why the decision has inactive not been taken.

Provincial: we have provided active participation

The Mazowieckie provincial office emphasizes that it acts in accordance with the Code of Administrative Procedure. According to the answer sent to Onet, the National Prosecutor's Office requested that proceedings be initiated for the annulment of Ziobra's passport, and the party, i.e. the politician himself, was granted an active participation in the proceedings.

In practice, this means that the office has sent a letter to Ziobra informing about the case and giving it an chance to look into the file. The provincial press squad confirms that correspondence has been served by post and received, and the site has the right to consult papers at the office in the presence of an administrative staff.

For the time being, there is no indication that the erstwhile minister will benefit from this right. However, the deficiency of individual standing and deficiency of insight into the file do not automatically hold the case. The Authority must show that it has given the organization the chance to mention to the material before issuing a decision to revoke the passport.

What happens erstwhile the passport is revoked?

If the Provincial decides to cancel the document, the decision shall enter into force on the date of its issue. In this case, the Passport papers Act provides for a circumstantial procedure – no classical appeal to a higher instance authority can be made from the provincial decision. Ziobro will only be able to challenge her straight to the Provincial Administrative Court.

From the service point of view, the method implications of this step are important. Information about the cancellation of the passport will be entered in the registry of Passport Documents, and from there it will automatically enter Interpol and Schengen Information strategy bases. This means that the paper will be considered invalid not only in Poland but besides in the Schengen countries and in the systems utilized by border services outside the EU.

For Zbigniew Ziobry, this would mean a serious regulation on freedom of travel, although the cancellation of the passport itself is not yet equal to detention. Rather, this is part of a wider legal puzzle in which the decision of the court on temporary detention will play an crucial role.