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Polish Prosecutors on Tuesday requested the removal of parliamentary immunity from a former justice minister who faces charges of abuse of power and misuse of funds, including bribery. Israel The spyware was reportedly used against political opponents.
Zbigniew Ziobro was accused of misusing a fund under the Justice Ministry for victims of violence for other purposes, including the purchase of Israeli Pegasus surveillance software.
Prosecutors said they had evidence that Ziobro allegedly created and led an organized crime group responsible for siphoning money from the same justice fund for personal and political interests. Ziobro served as Minister of Justice and Prosecutor General between 2015 and 2023 under the Conservatives law and justice Team.
General Prosecutor’s Office spokeswoman Anna Adamiak told a news conference that 150 million zlotys ($42 million) from the Justice Fund were misused. He said prosecutors were seeking Ziobro’s arrest on charges that carry a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.
The current government, led by a center-right Prime Minister donald tuskclaimed that Law & Justice used Pegasus to spy on political opponents, including prominent politicians from Tusk’s party. Polish authorities are investigating the claims.
Tusk’s government came to power with a promise to punish the former government for alleged abuses committed while in office.
“There are no sacred cows,” the current Justice Minister, Waldemar Zurek, wrote on X, announcing the request to lift Ziobro’s immunity. The Marshal of the Sejm, the lower house of parliament, which receives requests, is a political ally of Tusk.
Prosecutors previously charged Ziobro’s former deputy Michael Vos with abuse of power for his role in the Pegasus purchase. Prosecutors have also unsuccessfully sought to lift the immunity of Bogdan Swiatzkowski, the current president of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, over orders given while serving as national prosecutor in relation to Pegasus surveillance operations.
Zbigniew Ziobro did not immediately respond to prosecutors’ allegations.
He was in Budapest, Hungary, on Monday, writing on Twitter that he would tell “Hungarian friends” what life looks like under a “Brussels-appointed prime minister”, taking a dig at Tusk. The Law and Justice Party accuses Tusk of being a puppet of the EU.
Hungary, led by a nationalist prime minister viktor orbanHas hosted several politicians close to law and justice while the Polish authorities were searching for them.
Speaking during a parliamentary commission investigating Pegasus, Ziobro said on September 29 that he was the initiator of the purchase of the spy software, but insisted that it was used for legitimate purposes, to expose “the activities of people who embezzle Polish property.”