Hungary grants asylum to Polish ex-justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro

[ad_1] Adam Easton BBC Information Warsaw correspondent

<img sizes="(min-width: 1280px) 50vw, (min-width: 1008px) 66vw, 96vw" srcset="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/240/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 240w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 320w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 480w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/640/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 640w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/800/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 800w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 1024w,https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1536/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp 1536w" src="https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/480/cpsprodpb/4ce5/live/d38d2930-efb8-11f0-a422-4ba8a094a8fa.jpg.webp" loading="eager" alt="Reuters Zbigniew Ziobro wearing a blue coat, light blue shirt and burgundy tie, points with the raised index finger of his left hand " class="sc-5340b511-0 hLdNfA"/> Reuters Zbigniew Ziobro says he's a sufferer of political persecution

Hungary has granted political asylum to Poland's former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro who's going through prices of embezzlement.

Ziobro is going through 26 prices associated to embezzling cash from a fund meant to be spent on crime victims and rehabilitating criminals.

As an alternative, he's accused of authorising the acquisition of spy ware that was allegedly used to hack political opponents' telephones. He says he's a sufferer of political persecution.

Granting asylum to a citizen of a fellow EU member state goes in opposition to the spirit of EU requirements.

However within the case of Hungary it's neither new nor stunning.

Ziobro is the second politician of the previous Legislation and Justice-led authorities to be granted this standing - final 12 months it was his former deputy Marcin Romanowski who fled to Budapest to hunt safety.

Each are accused of corruption and misusing their energy - most notably by utilizing the cash of the state-controlled Justice Fund which was underneath their oversight with the intention to fund their get together and its cronies.

Ziobro was justice minister between 2015 and 2023 underneath the earlier right-wing PiS-led authorities, which is politically aligned to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

If discovered responsible he may withstand 25 years in jail.

Writing on X, Ziobro mentioned: "I've determined to just accept the asylum granted to me by the federal government of Hungary as a result of political persecution in Poland."

"I've chosen to battle in opposition to political banditry and lawlessness. I stand in opposition to a creeping dictatorship," Ziobro added, accusing Prime Minister Donald Tusk of waging a "vendetta" in opposition to him.

Ziobro is accused of authorising a 25m zloty ($7m; £5.15m) buy of Israeli-made Pegasus spy ware, which Poland's present coalition authorities and a European Parliament investigative staff discovered was used to secretly hack the telephones of political opponents.

Present Overseas Minister Radoslaw Sikorski mentioned his telephone was hacked and Tusk mentioned his spouse's and daughter's telephones had been additionally hacked.

Ziobro can also be accused of awarding Justice Fund grants to fireside stations and ladies's associations with out correct competitors to bolster help for the federal government.

As minister of justice from 2015 to 2023, Ziobro was the writer of judiciary reforms which provoked a serious battle with Brussels.

The problem led to a freeze of EU cash for Poland in addition to to verdicts of the European Court docket of Justice, which deemed them as violating basic EU guidelines and requirements together with the precept of judicial independence.

Orban, who confronted related criticism, and the PiS rejected and ignored these rulings, saying they violated Poland's sovereignty and constituted an overreach of Brussels's powers.