{"id":1234,"date":"2025-01-27T15:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T16:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/?p=1234"},"modified":"2025-01-27T17:13:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T17:13:25","slug":"poland-to-question-ex-justice-minister-over-spyware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/27\/poland-to-question-ex-justice-minister-over-spyware\/","title":{"rendered":"Poland to question ex-justice minister over spyware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Tusk\u2019s government has accused its predecessor of using Israel\u2019s Pegasus program against political opponents<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Warsaw court has ordered the arrest of former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, unless he\u00a0testifies before a parliamentary committee investigating the alleged use of Israeli-made spyware against the current ruling coalition.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Donald Tusk\u2019s government has claimed that its predecessor used Pegasus, developed by Israel\u2019s NSO Group, to spy on almost 600 people between 2017 and 2022, including political rivals and their campaign teams.<\/p>\n

The Sejm\u2019s (lower house of parliament) commission investigating the allegations has petitioned to have Ziobro arrested if he does not appear at the January 31 hearing. On Monday, the District Court in Warsaw approved the request.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I am abroad, I will come to Poland because I am not afraid of the officers,\u201d<\/em> Ziobro told Polsat News in response to the subpoena.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not resist,\u201d<\/em> he added, clarifying a remark he made on Friday about having an arsenal of weapons and believing in self-defense.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"FILE
Former Polish security chief forced to testify in spyware probe<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ziobro, a member of parliament from the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, has argued that the inquiry is illegal, citing a September 2024 ruling by Poland\u2019s Constitutional Tribunal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no commission of inquiry into Pegasus, because the Constitutional Tribunal banned it,\u201d<\/em> MP Michal Wojcik of PiS said on Monday. \u201cDespite this, a group of MPs are demanding that Ziobro be forcibly brought in. This is being endorsed by a judge who spoke on the merits of the case, but does not want to recuse herself. Sick!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Krzysztof Brejza, a member of the European Parliament from Poland\u2019s ruling Civic Platform coalition, countered that \u201cthe law applies to everyone,\u201d<\/em> even to Ziobro, claiming that the former justice minister was \u201cmocking the law.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Ziobro missed four summons by the committee before the Sejm voted to lift his parliamentary immunity last month. He then said he would testify voluntarily, following the arrest of the former head of the Internal Security Agency (AWB), Piotr Pogonowski.<\/p>\n

PiS ruled Poland from 2015 to late 2023, when Tusk\u2019s coalition took over. The new government has launched multiple inquiries into its predecessor\u2019s alleged misdeeds. According to reports in the Polish media, PiS spent substantial sums to use spyware<\/a> against political opponents, including the Civic Platform\u2019s election campaign leader.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Tusk\u2019s government has accused its predecessor of using Israel\u2019s Pegasus program against political opponents A Warsaw court has ordered the arrest of former Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, unless he\u00a0testifies before a parliamentary committee investigating the alleged use of Israeli-made spyware against the current ruling coalition. Prime Minister Donald Tusk\u2019s government has claimed that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1234","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1234"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1238,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1234\/revisions\/1238"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/developeternal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}