Poland requests US to extradite ex-justice minister, PAP sources report
Polish authorities have filed a request for the US to extradite the former justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, who faces multiple criminal charges related to a corruption scandal, PAP has learned unofficially from sources close to the investigation.
Ziobro is accused of leading an organised crime group within his ministry that defrauded millions of zlotys from a special reserve fund designed to help victims of crime.
In February, a Polish court agreed to his detention, and he has been wanted under an arrest warrant since.
According to prosecutors, Ziobro has been in the United States since May. Before that, he fled Poland to Hungary, where he received international protection from the government led by Viktor Orban and where he stayed until Orban's defeat in the parliamentary elections in April.
Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek announced that Poland would seek Ziobro's extradition from the US, after the ex-minister confirmed on May 10 he had travelled from Hungary for the US.
Earlier this month, Hungary reportedly revoked the international protection status for Ziobro and his wife, Patrycja Kotecka-Ziobro, as well as for the ex-deputy justice minister Marcin Romanowski, who is also a suspect in the investigation.
Ziobro was the justice minister in 2015-2023, when the socially-conservative Law and Justice government was in power. (PAP)
wpb/mf/ kgr/
