Polish officers raid home of ex-minister for justice amid investigation into alleged corruption

Poland's former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, whose home was raided as part of an investigation into the 'Justice Fund' run by his department. He has denied wrongdoing. Photograph: Attila Husejnow/Sopa Images/LightRocket via GetPoland’s ruling coalition has stepped up its battle with the former government, raiding the home of the former minister for justice amid claims he oversaw a state-financed slush fund that financed spying on opponents and bankrolled the Catholic Church.

Media reports suggest the former ruling Law and Justice party used the fund to buy voter support with constituency donations at election time. Any illegal use of public funding in the past, if proven, could have consequences for public funding of PiS now.‘I left Harold’s Cross because I wanted a kind of financial freedom that wasn’t on offer to me there’

Mr Ziobro, who is undergoing chemotherapy, has denied any wrongdoing and attacked the searches as a “spectacle of banditry and lawlessness”. In some cases, justice ministry officials responsible for overseeing fund disbursement also acted for beneficiary organisations. In others, awards were made to unnamed foundations set up shortly before ad hoc tendering procedures.Some 100 million zloty was transferred to a foundation run by a priest, reportedly a friend of the minister, to build a centre to assist victims of crime.

Poland’s bishops’ conference, under fire to address the growing list of allegations, has criticised what it sees as “grossly unfair media attacks”.

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