Hungary grants asylum to former Polish minister implicated in spyware probe

Hungary has granted political asylum to Poland's former justice minister, Zbigniew Ziobro, who is being prosecuted for his role in a spyware scandal that has rocked the country. 

Ziobro is facing dozens of charges for allegedly embezzling money meant for crime victims to pay for spyware used to snoop on the devices of political opponents.

One of the highest profile people implicated in Poland’s sprawling spyware scandal, Ziobro said on X that he intends to accept Hungary’s asylum offer “due to the political persecution in Poland.”

“I have decided to remain abroad until genuine guarantees of the rule of law are restored in Poland,” Ziobro posted. “I believe that instead of acquiescing to being silenced and subjected to a torrent of lies—which I would have no opportunity to refute—I can do more by fighting the mounting lawlessness in Poland.”

Ziobro served as justice minister from 2015 until 2023 and stands accused of helping facilitate a massive spyware operation that current Police Prime Minister Donald Tusk has alleged involved snooping on nearly 600 people.

In September 2024, a Senate commission investigating the scandal said it had found "gross violations of constitutional standards.”

It is unusual for a country within the European Union to offer asylum to a criminal defendant facing prosecution elsewhere in the bloc. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is politically aligned with Ziobro, a member of the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, and has his own history with spyware, however.

In December 2024, another former Justice Ministry official, Marcin Romanowski, claimed asylum in Hungary after facing charges for his alleged role in the spyware operation.