Hungary has granted political asylum to former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, his legal representative said on January 12.

Ziobro, an MP for the radical right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, has remained in Hungary since early November after leaving Poland shortly before parliament lifted his immunity and approved the possibility of his arrest over alleged abuse of power and misuse of state funds.

“[Zbigniew] Ziobro has obtained international protection and political asylum,” Ziobro’s lawyer Bartosz Lewandowski said in a post on X. 

Lewandowski also said asylum was granted “in connection with the actions of the prosecution and [other] state agencies subordinate to the government of [Polish Prime Minister] Donald Tusk, which led to a series of measures bearing the hallmarks of politically motivated repression.”

“I choose to fight political lawlessness and banditry. I am resisting an advancing dictatorship,” Ziobro said in a separate post on X. He also thanked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“I decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” Ziobro also said. “The Tusk regime will face severe consequences. I will personally take part in this fight.”

Prosecutors said Ziobro, who served as justice minister and prosecutor general between 2015 and 2023, is suspected of 26 offences, including forming an organised criminal group within the justice ministry and misappropriating more than €35.44mn from the Justice Fund.

A court hearing on possible pre-trial detention for Ziobro is scheduled for January 15.

Hungary previously granted asylum in December 2024 to former deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski, who faces multiple charges in a related investigation.

“The former Minister of Justice, Mr. Ziobro, who was the mastermind of the political corruption system, has asked the government of Victor Orbán for political asylum. A logical choice,” PM Tusk said on X.