2025-12-17 17:02
publication
2025-12-17 17:02
The spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office, Prosecutor Przemysław Nowak, announced on Wednesday that the prosecutor will submit a request to prohibit the issuance of another passport to the former head of the Ministry of Justice, Zbigniew Ziobro – a suspect in the investigation regarding the Justice Fund.
The passport of Zbigniew Ziobro, PiS MP and former Minister of Justice, was invalidated by the decision of the Masovian Voivode. The request in this case was submitted by the National Prosecutor's Office, in whose investigation Ziobro is suspected of abuses relating to the Justice Fund.
The decision regarding Ziobro's passport was announced on Tuesday on Platform X by the head of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, Marcin Kierwiński. “Zbigniew Z.'s passport was invalidated by the decision of the Masovian Voivode, Mariusz Frankowski, at the request of the National Prosecutor's Office. No one will escape responsibility,” Kierwiński emphasized.
On Wednesday, during a press conference, PK spokesman Przemysław Nowak confirmed that the decision of the Masovian Voivode had reached the prosecutor's office and was consistent with its request. – As far as I know, the prosecutor will also submit a request not to issue another passport, i.e. a ban on issuing another passport, prosecutor Nowak said. He emphasized that the next application would prevent Ziobro from being issued another passport.
He added that at this stage the prosecutor's office is trying to “make it more difficult” for the former head of the Ministry of Justice to “possibly further escape outside the Schengen area” and to make his detention more probable.
Ziobro has been in Budapest since the end of October, and recently he was in Brussels. He did not clearly declare that he would apply for political asylum in Hungary or that he would return to Poland. The prosecutor's office, whose investigative team no. 2 conducts proceedings regarding, among others, rigging competitions for multi-million grants from the Justice Fund, applied for the invalidation of his passport and diplomatic passport in mid-November. Currently, both documents are invalidated.
On December 22, the District Court for Warsaw-Mokotów will consider the prosecutor's request to arrest Ziobro for three months. According to investigators, the need to arrest the PiS MP results, among others, from: for fear of his flight or hiding, as well as unlawful obstruction of the investigation.
The charges that the prosecutor wants to present to the PiS MP include, among others: establishing and leading “an organized criminal group for a period of five years, as well as setting up and manually controlling competitions for grants from the Justice Fund and appropriating money obtained in this way.” According to the prosecutor's office, Ziobro committed 26 crimes and the charges against him, including granting subsidies to unauthorized entities, amount to over PLN 143 million.
The Sejm waived Ziobro's immunity on November 7 in relation to all 26 charges that the prosecutor's office wants to bring against him in connection with the Justice Fund case. The Sejm also consented to his detention and arrest. On the same day, the prosecutor issued a decision to present Ziobro with 26 charges, as well as to detain him and forcibly bring him to him by officers of the Internal Security Agency.
At the beginning of December, Ziobro declared that he would appear in the country within a few hours if “random assignment of cases to judges is restored”, “illegally dismissed court presidents” and “legal authority in the prosecutor's office, including the legal national prosecutor” are restored. (PAP)
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