Zbigniew Ziobro is in the U.S. on a journalist visa, and Polish authorities want him home to face 26 criminal charges.
PRAGUE — Poland is examining whether former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro broke the rules by fleeing to the U.S. despite facing charges back home over accusations of misusing public funds, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said at Saturday’s POLITICO Speakeasy at the GLOBSEC Forum.
Ziobro, who is still an MP and deputy chairman of Poland’s opposition Law and Justice party, “needs to face the charges,” Sikorski said.
Ziobro had been in Hungary since 2025 after former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán granted the disgraced minister asylum. New Hungarian leader Péter Magyar, however, promised to launch extradition proceedings against Ziobro upon taking office.
Ziobro is wanted in Poland over the alleged misuse of public funds and the deployment of Pegasus spyware against political opponents. He has consistently denied the charges, calling the investigation a political vendetta from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
He arrived in the U.S. earlier this month to work for right-wing Polish broadcaster TV Republika.
Reuters reported on Monday that U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau directed senior State Department officials to expedite a U.S. visa for Ziobro. The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has close ties to the Law and Justice party.
Sikorski said he has expressed Warsaw’s “displeasure” at Ziobro’s presence in the U.S. to American authorities.
Ziobro has called the criminal charges against him “fabricated” and said he would fight extradition before a U.S. court rather than return to Poland.
Asked whether Poland would seek extradition, Sikorski said that was a separate process but noted that Warsaw has an extradition treaty with Washington. “The first thing is, of course, whether he’s a journalist, whether he’s entitled to that visa,” the foreign minister said, noting that Ziobro faces 26 criminal charges in Poland.
Ziobro is actively engaged in the Polish political debate from his U.S. refuge, frequently commenting critically on X about the actions of Tusk’s government.
“His job is to be in parliament and voting, and he has now, in our view, gained a journalistic visa under false pretenses,” Sikorski said. “He’s not a journalist, and he’s already misusing the journalistic visa, because he’s openly saying in social media that he’s going to be touring the United States, organizing Polish communities. That’s not a journalistic assignment.”