By Pawel Florkiewicz
WARSAW, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Hungary has granted asylum to a former justice minister of Poland, worsening a rift between Warsaw, where nationalists lost power in 2023, and Budapest, where anti-liberal Prime Minister Viktor Orban remains in charge.
Poland has sought to prosecute former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, architect of changes to the judicial system that the EU had long said undermined the rule of law when the nationalist Law and Justice party (PiS) led Poland.
Hungary under Orban and Poland under PiS had long been allies, although they differed over policy towards Russia after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Hungary has repeatedly accused the pro-EU government that replaced PiS in Poland of persecuting its political foes.
"I decided to take advantage of the asylum granted to me by the Hungarian government due to political repressions in Poland," Ziobro wrote on X on Monday. He said he had also requested asylum for his wife.
Poland had objected last week last week after Hungary notified EU countries that it had offered asylum to two Poles, without identifying them. Monday's confirmation that they included Ziobro drew derision from the government in Warsaw.
"The former Minister of Justice fleeing like a coward from the Polish justice system. A total downfall!" Tomasz Siemoniak, the cabinet minister in charge of Poland's security services, wrote on X.
In a press conference, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto confirmed that Budapest had approved "some" asylum requests from Poland, again without identifying Ziobro.
"In Poland... many people are subject to political persecution," he said.
ALLEGED MISUSE OF PUBLIC MONEY
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's pro-EU Polish government has vowed to bring PiS figures accused of wrongdoing to justice.
Ziobro, the most high-profile figure targeted by prosecutors so far, is accused of misuse of money from a fund to help victims of crime, including spending it on Pegasus, a spyware system that can infiltrate mobile phones. Prosecutors say it was used against domestic political opponents.
Ziobro says he is the victim of a political witch hunt because as prosecutor general he launched investigations into people close to Tusk.
In 2024, Hungary angered Poland by giving asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a former deputy justice minister under PiS, who is also accused of misuse of public funds.
Tusk's government has dismissed accusations that it is persecuting political opponents, saying that it is upholding the rule of law.
(Reporting by Pawel Florkiewicz and Karol Badohal in Warsaw, Anita Komuves in Budapest, Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Peter Graff)
