Polish former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro was detained by police at Warsaw airport and brought to a parliamentary inquiry on the Pegasus spyware scandal.
“No Sacred Cows”
Ziobro was arrested at Warsaw’s airport and taken to a Sejm investigative committee meeting on the Pegasus scandal, scheduled for 12:00. “The era of impunity is over,” wrote Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński on X. Krzysztof Brejza, an MEP, noted that Ziobro could have arrived earlier from Brussels, where his wife Patrycja Kotecka works as an assistant to MEPs Jakub and Ozdoba.
“He humiliated himself,” stated Tomasz Trela, a Leftist MP on the committee. “Instead of coming to the committee humbly, Ziobro tried to hide behind Święczkowski, who attempted to intimidate police and the court. Today, he humiliated himself. The Justice Minister was brought in by police. It speaks for itself,” wrote KO leader Zbigniew Konwiński.
PiS Reactions: “Theater of Lawlessness”
PiS club leader Mariusz Błaszczak called Ziobro’s detention a “political spectacle” by an “illegal pseudo-investigative committee.” “This group of MPs has no legal, ethical, or moral grounds to convene, let alone interrogate or demand anyone’s presence,” he wrote. Mariusz Gosek announced that PiS would file a complaint with prosecutors over the police’s alleged failure to comply with a Constitutional Tribunal ruling barring Ziobro’s detention.
MP Marcin Warchoł described the committee as “illegal” and condemned the “illegal interrogation and detention of Minister Zbigniew Ziobro at Okęcie Airport upon his arrival in Poland.”
Ninth Attempt to Question Ziobro
This is the ninth attempt to question the former Justice Minister. Previous efforts failed as Ziobro either submitted medical exemptions or avoided the committee by challenging its legality. In one case, police brought him to the Sejm building, but committee members had already adjourned. Ziobro is a key witness in the Pegasus system inquiry, as his Justice Ministry oversaw the fund that provided 25 million złoty to the Central Anticorruption Bureau (CBA) for the spyware purchase.
According to the ruling coalition, the system was used under the Law and Justice (PiS) government to surveil the opposition.
