The Hungarian government has offered asylum to a Polish former deputy minister in the previous government of the right-wing populist Law and Justice Party (PiS), Budapest announced yesterday (Thursday).

Authorities in Poland issued a European arrest warrant for former Justice Minister Marcyn Romanowski the day before yesterday, Wednesday.

Mr Romanovski’s lawyer, criminal lawyer Bartos Lewandowski, confirmed via X that Hungary has granted political asylum to his client. The decision was also confirmed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff, according to the Polish news agency PAP.

According to Lewandowski, the former minister argued in his asylum application that the investigation against him by the Polish prosecutor’s office has a political spring in its step.

He also noted that he could not expect a fair trial in Poland and that the Hungarian authorities granted the request because Mr Romanowski’s “rights and freedoms” were threatened in his home country.

Reacting via X, Polish Foreign Minister Marcyn Romanowski said Hungary’s actions were perceived in Warsaw as a “hostile act against Poland and the principles of the European Union.”

Marcin Romanowski is being investigated in 11 cases, accused of, among other things, setting up a gang and a gang. He allegedly funneled large sums of money from a fund to aid victims of crime to projects that were thought to benefit PiS by former Justice Minister Zbigniew Zobro.

Mr Romanovski, who was briefly arrested in July, denies all charges. He was released a few 24 hours after being detained as he argued that he has immunity because he is a member of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (Council of Europe).

But there was a waiver of his immunity in October and a Polish court ordered him re-arrested on December 9 – but the person concerned proved impossible to trace.

The nationalist, conservative PiS party ruled Poland from 2015 to 2023. It is currently an opposition party.