Zbigniew Ziobro in Budapest
In an open letter on Wednesday evening, more than fifty Polish intellectuals called on members of the lower house of parliament not to vote in favor of the preliminary arrest of Zbigniew Ziobro, an opposition MP and former Justice Minister who is reportedly battling serious health issues, as proposed by the Chief Prosecutor.
At the end of October, Waldemar Zurek, the current head of the Ministry of Justice, initiated a motion in parliament to suspend Zbigniew Ziobro’s immunity and requested the approval of the politician’s pre-trial detention. Based on the announcement, the Sejm will vote on the motion on Friday evening.
Polish intellectuals and clergy, including writer Bronislaw Wildstein, professor of history Andrzej Nowak, and Piotr Duda, president of Poland’s largest trade union, Solidarity, justified their appeal to all members of parliament in an open letter with “well-founded concerns about Ziobro’s health and life.”
Tusk – bez podstawy prawnej – chce wtrÄ…cić Å›miertelnie chorego czÅ‚owieka do wiezienia! To już nie demokracja, a autorytaryzm! pic.twitter.com/gEISUCxezf
— Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (@pisorgpl) November 6, 2025
They point out that the opposition politician has been battling cancer for two years, he has undergone complicated surgeries. His health requires constant contact with the doctors who perform these procedures, they emphasized.
Ziobro’s arrest would mean the suspension of his treatment, thereby putting his life in immediate danger,
the letter states. The signatories ask the representatives to take their colleague’s health into consideration, as their decision could “lead to irreversible deterioration of his health or even his death.”
Zbigniew Ziobro, a member of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, is facing criminal proceedings in connection with the so called Justice Fund, which operates under the Ministry of Justice: he is accused of abuse of office and dereliction of duty, a total of 26 criminal offenses. According to the prosecutor’s office, during the previous PiS-led government, as Minister of Justice, he “founded and led an organized criminal group” that included ministry staff.
PiS politicians say that Prime Minister Donald Tusk and politicians from the Civic Coalition he leads want to take revenge on Ziobro with criminal proceedings. Przemyslaw Czarnek, a PiS representative and former education minister, told the conservative RadioWnet channel on Thursday that
he does not know whether Ziobro, who is currently in Hungary, will return for Thursday evening’s meeting of the relevant parliamentary committee, which precedes the parliamentary vote.
Albo w areszcie, albo w Budapeszcie.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) October 30, 2025
“Either in prison or in Budapest” was how Donald Tusk commented on the prosecutor’s motion for Ziobro’s preliminary arrest at the end of October on X. The prime minister said on Tuesday that he was convinced that Ziobro “does not want to go down in history as a weakling or a coward,” and therefore “he will appear before the independent judiciary in Poland.”
“Donald Tusk crossed the line of constitutionality with his statement,” wrote constitutional lawyer Zoltán Lomnici Jr. in his latest blog post.
Mr. Ziobro is still believed to be in Hungary, but it is unclear whether he is considering applying for a political refugee status. If he did, he would be the second Polish conservative politician to do so, after former Deputy Justice Minister, Marcin Romanowski, was granted asylum in Hungary in December 2024.
In October 2023, parliamentary elections were held in Poland, resulting in the formation of a new liberal-left government led by Donald Tusk. From his first days in office, the new Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, has attempted to take full control of Poland’s public prosecution… pic.twitter.com/yUrdfNF2FI
— Marcin Romanowski (@MarRomanowski) January 22, 2024
The government of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has often been accused of “lawfare” by his opponents for allegedly persecuting his political opponents with show trials and a crackdown on the Polish conservative media and civil sector. At the center of these anti-opposition trials is Adam Bodnar, Poland’s current justice minister. Mr. Romanowski has stated in a post on X that “from his first days in office, the new Minister of Justice, Adam Bodnar, has attempted to take full control of Poland’s public prosecution service. At the beginning of the year, he issued an order to the National Prosecutor in charge of the prosecutor’s office to carry out a political purge among investigators… In order to guarantee the independence and stability of the prosecution service, the National Prosecutor can only be dismissed by order of the Prime Minister with the written consent of the President of Poland. The President did not give his consent and yet the National Prosecutor was unlawfully dismissed.This quote perfectly summarizes how the Tusk government currently operates: under the pretext of the rule of law, it brazenly violates laws and procedures in order to seize more public institutions.”
Via MTI; Featured photo: MTI/Kocsis Zoltán
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