Manipulation and the Justice Fund
The Public Prosecutor's Office makes allegations to the erstwhile Minister of Justice, among another things, about manipulating competitions for multi-million-dollar grants from the Justice Fund during the PiS governments.
In early November 2025, the Sejm decided to waive the immunity of Zbigniew Ziobra and agreed to his possible detention and temporary detention.
Parliament's decision was a consequence of the prosecutor's request of late October 2025 to let Ziobra to be brought to justice in connection with his planned 26 charges. The case is led by justice Agnieszka Prokopowicz, who postponed the sitting on 22 December last year until 15 January. The reason, as the court informed the court, was that the prosecution failed to include classified material in the arrest application.
Political asylum in Hungary
Currently, Zbigniew Ziobro enjoys political asylum and global protection granted to him by the Hungarian authorities, who felt that he was threatened by political persecution. This decision was made last December. According to 1 of his defenders, lawyer Bartosz Lewandowski, the erstwhile minister is to receive the travel paper provided for in the Geneva Convention, allowing him to move. However, this paper does not supply additional protection against national or global arrest warrants, including the European arrest warrant.
Ziobro announced that he would stay outside the country until he restored the real guarantees of the regulation of law in Poland, as he said, while declaring to proceed the fight against political lawlessness. He besides informed that he did not intend to waive his parliamentary mandate and plans to operate, including media, whose intent is to bring Donald Tusk's government down. The erstwhile Minister besides stressed that his actions related to the Justice Fund were in accordance with the applicable law and that he could return to Poland at any time, if he felt that the regulation of law would be restored.
According to defenders Zbigniew Ziobry, classified material refers to, as they have stated, a key charge concerning an agreement between the Ministry of Justice and the CBA on the transfer of funds. According to lawyers, these papers are beneficial to the erstwhile minister and should be taken into account by the court, while the prosecutor prevented Ziobrze from knowing their content. In his application for arrest, the prosecution accuses him, among others, of illegally transferring PLN 25 million from the Justice Fund to the CBA for the acquisition of Pegasus surveillance software.
This week, defence counsel reported that the D.A. denied them access to classified material, preventing them from being utilized in a detention session. They besides pointed out that the same papers are being utilized in the case of erstwhile Deputy Minister of Justice, PiS MP Michał Woś, accused of illegally financing the acquisition of Pegasus despite the fact that CBA did not meet the required conditions.
Ziobro may not show up
The Prosecutor's Office, on the basis of a request for interim detention against Zbigniew Ziobry, pointed to the real hazard of non-contribution, escape, hiding and taking actions impeding proceedings.
If the court takes account of the application to the erstwhile Minister of Justice, a BOLO will be issued, which will trigger his search in the country. If the service decides that Ziobro is not in Poland, the next step is to start searching on the basis of a European arrest warrant.
The defence will be able to file a complaint with the higher court, but the appeal itself will not halt the search procedure. On the another hand, defenders will be able to request suspension of enforcement pending the complaint.
Additionally, Ziobro may be covered by an global search by issuing, at the request of the Police Headquarters, a red Interpol note that informs the individual sought by 1 of the associate States and includes a request for its location and detention.
