Poland’s security agency raids homes of ex-government officials amid corruption allegations

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) – Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW) swooped on the properties of four former ruling members of parliament on Tuesday, including those of the ex-justice minister, as part of a nationwide investigation into allegations of corruption, a spokesman for the National Prosecutor's Office said.

The four were detained during the searches carried out on the orders of prosecutors from the Justice Fund investigative team.

The three officials from the Ministry of Justice who were responsible for the Justice Fund and one beneficiary of the Fund will be brought before the prosecutor's office.

Jacek Dobrzynski, spokesman for the minister of the coordinator of special services, told news service Onet that the ABW’s action was related to "exceeding powers and failure to fulfill duties by public officials."

Prosecutor Przemyslaw Nowak said that ABW officers searched several dozen locations throughout the country.

The properties of former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro – the architect of the Law and Justice (PiS) led government’s judicial reforms that drove the European Union to withhold bloc funds for Poland – were included in the swoop. Others were opposition lawmakers Michal Wos, Marcin Romanowski and Dariusz Matecki. Commercial television TVN reported that a priest was also detained.

Ziobro, who is reportedly being treated for cancer, said no-one had obstructed the prosecutor's office during the search of his house, reported the Independent.pl portal. He added that there had been no attempt to contact him in connection with plans to search his home.

At the end of January, Prosecutor General Adam Bodnar established an investigative team at the National Prosecutor's Office to examine the correctness of management and spending of money from the Justice Fund, which was set up to help victims of crime. An important element of the team's activities will be the purchase of the Pegasus system from the Justice Fund.

The allegations center on a support center for victims of crime being built in the suburbs of Warsaw, which is being established by a priest who runs the Profeto Foundation. The center has received almost 100 million zlotys (23 million euros) from the Justice Fund, a public foundation.

"Let law always mean law, and justice - justice," Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X.

His government has spent its first 100 days in office auditing public and quasi-public institutions, in particular in the media and energy sectors, while also overhauling the previous government’s judicial reforms.

Members of the PiS-led coalition the United Right criticized the move.

"This morning, at the request of ‘neo-prosecutors’ Tusk and (Justice Minister Adam) Bodnar, the services broke into Z. Ziobro's house. They broke windows and destroyed the house. All in his absence and undergoing treatment for cancer," wrote PiS MP Patryk Jaki on X.

Tusk’s ruling coalition also on Tuesday brought a motion in parliament to summon the chief of the central bank, Adam Glapinski, before the State Tribunal over malfeasance allegations.