Poland has asked the United States to extradite former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, who faces 26 charges mainly related to the alleged misuse of money from a crime victims’ fund for political purposes, prosecutors said.
Background
Ziobro, the architect of changes to the Polish judicial system that the European Union has said undermined the rule of law during the 2015-2023 rule of the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS), has denied wrongdoing and said he is the victim of a politically motivated campaign by Poland’s pro-EU ruling coalition.
A request for the pre-trial detention and extradition of Zbigniew Ziobro was transmitted through diplomatic channels to the competent authorities of the United States of America, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Ziobro and his deputy Marcin Romanowski were granted asylum in Hungary by the previous nationalist government. Ziobro managed to flee to the U.S. on May 9, the day Hungary’s new Prime Minister Peter Magyar, who had promised to revoke their refugee status, was sworn in.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
